with all its majesty, there is a simplicity in the mechanism of systems and constellations; every star has its place and its orbit; and we see no traces of a complication, or confusion, which might render necessary unwearied and infinite watchfulness, in order to the preventing universal disorder. And it is again a surprising truth, that the Spirit of God should act on the human soul; that, secretly and silently, it should renovate its decayed powers, refine its affections, and awaken the dormant immortality. Yet even here we may speak of simplicity-each soul, like each star, has its own sphere of motion; each is distinct from each; and none has ever to be dissolved, and mingled, like the body, with the elements of a million others. It still then remains a kind of marvel amongst marvels, that there hath not died the man who shall not live again, live again in that identical body which his spirit abandoned when summoned back to God. And upon this account, upon account of the apparently vaster power displayed in a resurrection, may we suppose that Christ bade his hearers withhold their amazement at what he had advanced. Yes, and we feel that he might have spoken of every other portion of God's dealings with our race, and, without deprecating the wonderfulness of other things, have declared, at each step, that he had stranger truths in store. He might have spoken of creation; and, whilst an audience were confounded at the story of animate and inanimate things starting suddenly into being, he might have added, "marvel not at this." He might have spoken, as he did speak, of a spiritual regeneration pervading large masses of the family of man; and, whilst those who heard him were looking surprised and incredulous, he might have added, as he did add, "marvel not at this." For he had to speak of a rifling of the sepulchres, of the re-animating the dust of buried generations. And this was to speak of earth, and sea, and air, resolving themselves suddenly into the flesh and sinew of human-kind. This was to speak of countless particles, some from the east and others from the west, these from the north, and those from the south, moved by mysterious impulse, and combining into the limbs of patri archs, and prophets, and priests, and kings, and people. This was to speak of the re-appearance of every human being that ever moved on the face of the earth-the old man who sunk beneath the burden of years, and the young man who perished in his prime, and the infant who just opened his eyes on a sinful and sad world, and then closed them as though terrified-all reproduced, though all had been dispersed like chaff before the hurricane, all receiving their original elements, though those elements had been the play-things of the winds, and the fuel for the flames, and the foam upon the waters. And if this were indeed the speaking of a general resurrection, oh, then our Lord might have already been affirming what was wonderful; but, whatsoever that had been, he might have gone on to repress the astonishment of his hearers, saying unto them, "marvel not at this," and giving as his reason, "for the hour is coming,, in which all that are in the graves shall hear my voice." Now we have probably advanced enough in explanation of what perhaps at first seems hardly to have been expected, namely, that our Lord should represent other wonders, even that of the spiritually passing from death unto life, as not to be wondered at, in comparison with the resurrection of the body. We proceed, therefore, to the examining what Christ asserts in regard of those sublime transactions which will be associated with this surpassingly strange event. ९९ "The hour is coming." More than eighteen hundred years have elapsed, since he who spake as never man spake," and who could utter nothing but truth, made this assertion, an assertion which implied that the hour was at hand. But the dead are yet in their graves; no vivifying voice has been heard in the sepulchres. We know however that "a thousand years are with the Lord as one day, and one day as a thousand years." We count it not therefore strange that the predicted hour, the hour so full of mystery and might, has not yet arrived. But it must come; it may not perhaps be distant; and there may be some of us, for aught we can tell, who shall be alive on the earth when the voice issues forth, the voice which shall be echoed from the sea, and the city, and the mountain, and the desert, all creation hearkening, and all that hath ever lived simultaneously responding. But whether we be of the quick or of the dead, on the morning of the resurrection, we must hear the voice, and join ourselves to the swarming throng which presses forward to judgment. And whose is the voice that is thus irresistible, which is heard even in the graves of the earth, and in the caverns of the deep, and which is heard only to be obeyed? Know ye not that voice? Ye have heard it before. It is the voice which said, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is the voice which prayed on behalf of murderers, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." It is the voice which said, "It is finished," pronouncing the completion of the work of human redemption. Yes, ye have heard that voice before. Ye have heard it in the ministrations of the Gospel. It hath called to you, it hath pleaded with you. And those who have listened to it in life, and who have obeyed it when it summoned them to take up the cross, to them it will be a mighty comfort, that, in the voice which is shaking the universe, and wakening the dead, they recognize the tones of Him who could be "touched with a feeling of their infirmities." also man, and, therefore, can he put himself into the position of those who are brought to his bar. And because the Judge is thus the Mediator, the judgment-seat can be approached with confidence and gladness. The believer in Christ, who hearkened to the suggestions of God's Spirit, and brake away from the trammels of sin, shall know the Son of man, as he comes down in the magnificent sternness of celestial authority. And we say not that it shall be altogether without dread or apprehension, that the righteous, starting from the sleep of death, shall hear the deepening roll of the archangel's summons, and behold the terrific pomp of heavenly judicature. But we are certain that they will be assured and comforted, as they gaze upon their Judge, and recognize their surety. Words such as these will occur to them, "God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." " By that man." The man who "hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." The man who uttered the pathetic words, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together." The man who was "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justi fication." The man who sat in weariness by the well of Samaria; the man who wept in anguish at the grave of For it is, we think, one of the most Lazarus; the man who compassionbeautiful of the arrangements which ated the weakness of his slumbering characterize the Gospel, that the offi- disciples; the man whose "sweat was ces of Redeemer and Judge meet in the as it were great drops of blood," and same person, and that person divine. who submitted to be scourged, and bufWe call it a beautiful arrangement, be- feted, and crucified, "for us men, and cause securing for us tenderness as for our salvation." Yes, this is the very well as equity, the sympathies of a being who is to gather the nations befriend, as well as the disinterestedness fore him, and determine the everlastof a most righteous arbiter. Had the ing condition of each individual. And judge been only man, the imperfection though we dare not attempt to define of his nature would have made us ex- the motions of those most assured of pect much of error in his verdicts. deliverance, when standing, in their reHad he been only God, the distance surrection-bodies, on the earth, as it between him and us would have made heaves with strange convulsions, and us fear it impossible, that, in determin- looking on a firmament lined with ten ing our lot, he would take into account thousand times ten thousand angels, our feebleness and trials. But in the and beholding a throne of fire and cloud, person of Christ there is that marvel- such as was never piled for mortal sovlous combination which we seek in the ereignty, and hearing sounds of which Judge of the whole human race. He is even imagination cannot catch the echo God, and, therefore, must he know ev-yet is it enough to assure us that ery particular of character. But he is they will be full of hope and of glad ness, to tell us that he who will speak to them is he who once died for them-Oh, there will be peace to the righteous, when "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll," if it be Christ who saith, "the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear my voice." there is no annihilation; all rise, either to be unspeakably happy, or unspeakably miserable, for there are but two resurrections. We may indeed be sure that both heaven and hell will present recompenses suited to all varieties of character, and that in the allotments of both there will be a graduated scale. But let it never, on this account, be supposed that there may be a happiness so imperfect, and a misery so in considerable, that there shall be but little final difference between some who are acquitted, and others who are condemned. "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed." The last admitted, and the first excluded, never let us think that these two classes approach so nearly to equality, that it may be comparatively unimportant with which we ranked. Heaven cannot dwindle away into hell, and hell cannot be softened away into heaven. Happiness or misery-one or other of these must be the portion of every man; and whilst we freely confess that happiness and misery may admit of almost countless degrees, and that thus there may be room for vast variety of retributions, we contend that between the two there must be an untravelled separation: the happiness, or the misery of one may be unspeakably less than that of another; but the least happy, and the least miserable, who shall tell us how much space there is between these for the agony and remorse of a storm-tossed spirit? But with what feelings will those hear the voice, of whom the Savior may affirm, "I have called, and ye refused; ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof?" They too shall know the voice; and it shall be to them as the voice of despised mercy, the voice of slighted love. They shall be more startled, and more pierced, and more lacerated, by that voice, than if it had never before been heard, or if its tones were not remembered. The sound of that voice will at once waken the memory of warnings that have been neglected, invitations refused, privileges unimproved. It will be painfully eloquent of all that was vainly done to win them to repentance, and therefore terribly reproachful, ominous of a doom which it is now too late to avert. They would have more hope, they would be less beaten down by a consciousness that they were about to enter on everlasting misery, if a strange voice had summoned them from the tomb, a voice that had never spoken tenderly and plaintively, never uttered the earnest beseechings, the touching entreaties of a friend, a brother, a Redeemer. Any voice rather than this voice. None Observe then that it must be either could be so dirge-like, so full of con- of a "resurrection of life," or of a "redemnation, so burdened with maledic-surrection of damnation," that each tion, as that which had often said, "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die ?" But this is the voice; and when this voice is heard, all that are in the graves shall come forth." And under how many divisions shall the swarming myriads be arranged? They have had very different opportunities and means, and you might have expected them to be separated into great variety of classes. But we read of only one division, of only two classes. "They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." There is not, you observe, any thing intermediate. All rise, so that amongst us will be finally partaker. And it is to depend on our works, which of the two shall be our resurrection. "They that have done good," and "they that have done evil," are our Lord's descriptions of the respective classes. Works are given as the alone criterion by which we shall be judged. And this interferes not with the great doctrine of justification by faith, because good works spring from faith, and are both its fruits and its evidence; whilst, by making words the test, a ground is afforded for the judgment of those to whom Christ has not been preached, as well as of those who have been invited to the believing on his name. The whole human family may be brought to the same bar, seeing that the only thing to be decided, is, whether they have done good, or whether they have done evil. And what say you to all this? If we could escape the judgment, or if we could bribe the judge; if we had the bone of iron, and the sinew of brass, and the flesh of marble, so that we might defy the fire and the worm, why then we might eat and drink, and amass gold, and gratify lust. But the judgment is not to be escaped-the very dead are to hear the voice, and who then can hide himself? And the Judge is not to be bribed; it is the eternal God himself, whose are the worlds, and all which they contain. And we are sensitive beings, beings with vast capacities for wretchedness, presenting unnumbered inlets to a ministry of vengeance-shall we then, in spite of all this, persist in neglecting the great salvation? We address ourselves now especially to our younger brethren, desiring to conclude the discourses of the month with a word of exhortation to those on whom the dew of their youth" is still freshly, resting. We have set before you the resurrection of life, and the resurrection of damnation; and we now tell you that you have your fate in your own keeping, and that there is no election but his own through which any one of you can perish. We speak to you as free, accountable beings, each of whom is so circumstanced and assisted that he may, if he will, gain heaven through the merits of Christ. The question therefore is, whether you will act as candidates for eternity, or live as those who know nothing of the great end of their creation. Born for immortality, destined to equality with angels, and entreated to work out your salvation with fear and trembling," will ye degrade yourselves to the level of the brute, and lose those souls for which Christ died? It is a question which each must answer for himself. Each is free to obey, or flee, youthful lusts, to study, or neglect, God's word, to live without prayer, or to be earnest in supplication. There is no compulsion on any one of you to be vicious; and, be well assured, there will be no compulsion on any one of you to be virtuous. Passions may be strong; but not too strong to be resisted through that grace which is given to all who seek it, but forced upon none who despise it. Temptations may be powerful; they are never irresistible; he who struggles shall be made victorious; but God delivers none who are not striving to deliver themselves. Be watchful, therefore-watchful against sins of the flesh, watchful against sins of the mind. Against sins of the flesh-sensuality so debases and enervates, that the soul, as though sepulchred in the body, can do nothing towards vindicating her origin. "Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled." Against sins of the mind-take heed that ye do not so admire and extol reason, as to think lightly of revelation. Ye live in days when mind is on the stretch, and in scenes where there is every thing to call it out. And we do not wish to make you less acute, less inquiring, less intelligent, than the warmest admirers of reason can desire you to become. We only wish you to remember that arrogance is not greatness, and that conceit is the index, not of strength, but of weakness. To exalt reason beyond its due place is to abase it; to set the human in rivalry with the divine is to make it contemptible. Let reason count the stars, weigh the mountains, fathom the depths-the employment becomes her, and the success is glorious. But when the question is, how shall a man be just with God," reason must be silent, revelation must speak; and he who will not hear it assimilates himself to the first Deist, Cain; he may not kill a brother, he certainly destroys himself. १९ And that you may be aided in overcoming sin, let your thoughts dwell often on that "strict and solemn account which you must one day give at the judgment-seat of Christ." I have endeavored to speak to you of the general resurrection and the last great assize. To the large mass of you it is not probable that I shall ever speak again. But we shall meet, when the sheeted dead are stirring, and the elements are dissolving. And "knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Would that we could persuade SERMON. THE ANCHOR OF THE SOUL. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."-Hebrews, 6: 19. It is a very peculiar and interesting cause which I have this day undertaken to plead that of the Floating Church, which offers the means of grace to our river population, to the most useful, and well nigh the most neglected of our countrymen-those who are carrying on our commerce, who have fought our battles, and who are ready, if peace be disturbed, to fight them again with equal valor, and, through God's help, with equal success. If there be a call to which the hearts of Englishmen more naturally respond than to any other, it must be that which demands succor for sailors. As a nation we seem to have less fellowship with the land than the sea; and our strongest sympathies are with those who plough its surface, and dare its perils. I feel, therefore, that I never had a charitysermon to preach, whose subject gave me so powerful a hold on the feelings of a congregation; and I think that this hold will not be lessened, if I engage your attention with a passage of Scripture, in which the imagery, if I may use the expression, is peculiarly maritime, whilst the truths which are inculcated are of the most interesting kind. The apostle Paul had just been speaking of laying hold on the hope set before us," by which he seems to denote the appropriation of those various blessings which have all been procured for us by Christ. The hope is that of eternal life; and to lay hold on this hope, must be so to believe upon Christ, that we have share in those sufferings and merits which have purchased forgiveness and immortality for the lost. And when the apostle proceeds, in the words of our text, to describe this hope as an anchor of the soul, we are to understand him as declaring that the expectation of God's favor, and of the glories of heaven, through the atonement and intercession of Christ, is exactly calculated to keep us steadfast and unmoved amid all the tempests of our earthly estate. We shall assume, then, as we are fully warranted by the context in doing, that the hope in question is the hope of sal |