of angels for men as preachers of christianity, it is easy to see, that, under such an arrangement, we should have been apt to lose sight of the operations of the Holy Spirit. You find St. Paul, when speaking of the Gospel as intrusted to himself and his fellow-laborers in the ministry, saying to the Corinthians, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." He assigns it, you see, as a reason why the Gospel was committed to weak and erring men, that God might have all the glory resulting from the publication. And undoubtedly the process secures this result. If God worked by mighty instruments, such as angels, if the engines employed were, to all appearance, adequate to the ends to be effected; the honor of success would at least be divided, and the ambassador might be thought to have helped forward, by his own power, the designs of him by whom he had been sent. But, as the case now stands, the services of the sanctuary all go to the demonstrating the supremacy of God, because, whilst undoubtedly instrumental to the effecting vast results, they are manifestly insufficient in themselves for any such achievement. And we should like you to add to his, that, not only does God employ men in preference to angels, but he commonly acts through what is weak in men, and not through what is strong. It is perhaps a single sentence in a sermon, a text which is quoted, a remark to which probably, if asked, the preacher would attach less importance than to any other part of his discourse, which makes its way into the soul of an unconverted hearer. We wish that there could be compiled a book which should register the sayings, the words, which, falling from the lips of preachers in different ages, have penetrated that thick coating of indifference and prejudice which lies naturally on every man's heart, and reached the soil in which vegetation is possible. We are quite presuaded that you would not find many whole sermons in such a book, not many long pieces of elaborate reasoning, not many argumentative demonstrations of human danger and human need. The volume would be a volume, we believe, of little frag ments: it would be made up of simple sentiments and brief statements: in the majority of instances, a few syllables would constitute the "grain of mustard seed," to which Christ himself likened his religion at the outset. We are only asserting what we reckon attested by the whole tenor of ministerial experience, when we say that sermons which God honors to the conversion of hearers, are generally effective in some solitary paragraph; and that the results which they produce may fairly be traced, not to the lengthened oration, as a compact and well-adjusted engine, but to one of its assertions, or its remonstrances, which possibly, had you subjected the discourse to the judgment of a critic, would have been left out as injurious, or at least not conducive, to the general effect. And we know of no more powerful evidence of a fixed determination on the part of God, to humble man by allowing him to be nothing but an instrument in his hands, than is derived from this fact of the ineffectiveness of all except perhaps one line in a sermon. God will oftentimes pass by it, as it were, and set aside an array of argument which has been constructed with great care, or a stirring appeal into which has been gathered every motive which seems calculated to rouse a dormant immortality, and, seizing on the sentence which the speaker thinks the weakest, or the paragraph in which there is nothing of rhetoric, will throw it into the soul as the germ of a genuine and permanent piety. And all this goes to the making good what we are anxious to prove, that the challenge in the second clause of our text is altogether borne out by the assertion in the first. There is no finer proof of the power of an author, than that he can compass great designs by inconsiderable means. If the means be great, we expect a great effect, and, when we find it, hardly count it an evidence of the greatness of the agent. But if the means be inconsiderable, and the produced effect great, we are lost in admiration, and want terms in which to express our sense of the might of the worker. Let us see then how our argument stands. What result is greater than that of the renewal of human nature, the transforming into a new creature one different is what is actually found in by sermons and sacraments. But the sermons are those of a man of like passions with yourselves, one frail and fallible, who has perhaps little or no power of enlightening your understand "born in sin, and shapen in iniquity?" Where, in all the compass of wonder- the sanctuary. God is there working ful things, is a more wonderful to be found than the change effected by conversion, or the after and gradual preparation of man for immortality? The being who is naturally the enemy of God, averse from holiness, with affec-ings, and certainly none of penetrating tions that fix exclusively on earthly things, is cast, as it were, into a fresh mould, and comes forth devoted to the service of his Maker, desirous of conformity to the image of Christ, and prepared to act on the conviction that here he has "no abiding city." He perseveres through a long series of trials and difficulties, contending with and conquering various enemies, acquiring in greater and greater measure the several graces which are characteristic of genuine faith, till at length, fully "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light," he enters "the valley of the shadow of death," and presses through it to glory. Yes, indeed, it is a vast achievement. Let us compare it with the employed instrumentality: this will surely bear some apparent proportion to the result. "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary." We know that it is by and through certain public ordinances of religion that thou dost generally turn men to thyself, and afterwards strengthen them to persevere in a heavenward course. Then we will hasten to the sanctuary, that we may observe the agency through which is effected what so much moves our wonder. Surely we shall find an angel ministering to the people, the being of a higher sphere, clothed in surpassing radiance, and discoursing with more than mortal power on the lofty topics of God and his dealings. Surely, if there be sacraments, they will be manifestly pregnant with energy, stupendous institutions, of which it shall be impossible to partake without feeling them the vehicles for communications of grace. Surely, in some august and overpowering mode, by a voice from the firmament, or by rich visions of immortality, will God make himself known to his people, employing means which shall evidently be adapted to the taking captive the whole man, and persuading or forcing the soul into an attitude of awful adoration. Ab, my brethren, how widely your hearts. There is moreover no proportion between his natural abilities as a reasoner or a speaker, and his success as an ambassador; on the contrary, the most honored is often, to all appearance, the worst equipped; and even where the man has strength, it may be said to be through his weakness that the chief good is wrought. And the sacraments-assuredly to a carnal eye nothing can be less commanding than these. There is an initiatory sacrament, "baptism for the remission of sins;" but it consists in nothing but the pronouncing a few words, and the sprinkling a little water. There is a sacrament through which membership with Christ is continued, and grace imparted for the many duties and trials of the christian; but a morsel of bread, and a drop of wine, consecrated by the priest, and received by the believer, are all that is visible in the wondrous transaction. Yes, by the sermons, not of a glorious angel, but of a sinful man; by sacraments, not imprinted with signs of Divinity, but so simple and unostentatious, that they seem to have no special fitness for the transmission of supernatural things; does God gather out a church from the world, and then train it for immortality. And in this he is great: verily, "the excellency of the power" is of him, not of us. ་་ Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary;" but, when we turn to the sanctuary, and observe through what a slight, and apparently incompetent, instrumentality thou dost bring round results which fill us with amazement, we can but adore thee in thine Almightiness; we can but exclaim with a voice of reverence and rapture, "Who is so great a God as our God?" Now we think that in the successive illustrations of our text, which have thus been advanced, there has been much to suggest practical reflections of no common worth. Was God's way in the Jewish temple of old? Was he passing, in all the sacrifices and ceremonies of the temple, to the completion of the work of our redemption? Then let us not fail to study with all diligence the law: in the law was the germ, or bud of the Gospel; and it will aid us much in understanding the system, when fully laid open, to examine it attentively whilst being gradually unfolded. Christianity, after all, is but Judaism in a more advanced stage; and it must therefore be our wisdom to trace carefully the religion in its progress towards perfection, if we hope to comprehend it when that perfection was reached. It is true that types derive all their significance from Christ; but it is equally true that they reflect the light which they receive from the cross, and thus illustrate the sacrifice by which themselves are explained. Is it again true that God's way was "in the sanctuary," in the holy of holies, that place of dread secrecy and sanctity? Then, as we have already inferred, let us be satisfied that God's dealings are righteous, however incomprehensible: we may not be able to explain them; for a majestic veil shrouds the place in which he works; but we may be confident that they are ordered in holiness, inasmuch as that place is of unspotted purity. And lastly, is God's way still "in the sanctuary?" Is it in the sanctuary, the house devoted to his service, that he specially reveals himself, and communicates supplies of his grace? Shall we not then learn to set a high worth on the public services of religion, to enter "the courts of the Lord's house" in humility, yet in hope, with holy fear, but nevertheless with high expectation, as knowing that we are to meet our Creator, but to meet him as "the God of all grace?" O for something of the spirit of the Psalmist, "a day in thy courts is better than a thousand." What rapid growth would there be in christian virtues, what knowledge, what peace, what joy, what assurance, if we had a practical consciousness that God's way "is in the sanctuary ;" and if we therefore came up to the sanctuary on purpose to see him, and to be cheered by his presence. You find it said of Hezekiah, that, when he had received a threatening and insulting message from the king of Assyria, he went straightway into the house of the Lord. He might have sought guidance and comfort in his own chamber: but he well knew where God was most sure to be found, and therefore did he hasten at once to the temple. My brethren, let me again say that we magnify, not ourselves, but our office. God is my witness that I have no thought, that, by any wisdom of my own, by skill as a reasoner, by force as a speaker, or by persuasiveness as a pleader, I may be able to instruct you, to animate, or to comfort. We will not dispute, for a moment, that you may read better sermons at home than you can hear in the church. But the difference between the preached and the printed sermon lies in this, that preaching is God's ordinance and printing is not. It pleases God to save men by the foolishness of preaching;" or, more accurately, "by the foolishness of the proclamation." And therefore is it that we set the pulpit against the press, and declare that you are more likely to be benefited by listening to the simplest sermon, delivered in great weakness, than by studying the volumes of the most able divines. When, but not until, it shall cease to be true that God's way "is in the sanctuary," you may hope to find those assistances and comforts in more private means of grace, which are offered you through public. We scarcely need add that such remarks as these apply to sacraments as well as to sermons. Yes, ye whom I never see at the table of the Lord, who expect to be nourished though ye continually refuse the proffered sustenance, we venture to tell you that nothing can supply to you the want of that which you sinfully neglect. I have visited many, very many, on their deathbeds, persons of various ranks and various ages. But I never yet found an individual happy in the prospect of dissolution, who had habitually neglected the Lord's Supper. How should he be ? How can he be strong, if he have lived without food? I know that God, if he please, can work without means: but, when he has instituted means, you have no right to expect that he will. He is on the mountain and on the flood, in the forests, and amid the stars: but his way "is in the sanctuary;" and if therefore you would know him as a great God, great to pardon, great to him in the sanctuary, or not wonder if perfect for immortality, you must seek he never be found. SERMON XIII. EQUITY OF THE FUTURE RETRIBUTION. PREACHED AT CAMDEN CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, DECEMBER 11, 1836. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."-Luke, 16: 10. There is no great difficulty in tracing the connection between these words and those by which they are immediately preceded. Our Lord had just delivered the parable of the unjust steward, and was admonishing his disciples to imitate the prudence, though not the immorality, of that unprincipled character. "I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations." Though riches cannot purchase heaven for their possessor, they may be so employed as to give evidence of christian faith and love, and when thus used, they may be said to provide witnesses who will testify at the last to the righteousness of their owners. The suffering and the destitute who have been relieved through the wealth, of which christian principle has dictated the application, may be regarded as friends who will appear in support of their benefactor, and prove his right to admission into the mansions prepared for those who have been faithful in their stewardship. But this statement of Christ seemed applicable to none but the rich. "Why," his disciples might have asked, "admonish us to make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, when we have nothing of this world's wealth, and, therefore, want the means of obeying the injunction." It was probably to meet this feeling, which he saw rising in their minds, that Christ went on to address them in the words of our text, "Ye judge wrongly (as if he should say) to conclude that because poor, and not rich, you cannot do that which I have just recommended. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much;'" so that the right use of little may place a man in as advantageous a position as the right use of much. The question is not what amount of talent has been intrusted to an individual, but what has been his employment of such measure as he had; for if he have had but little, and have used that little ill, he is as criminal as though his powers had been greater, and their misuse correspondent to their extent. "He that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." It thus appears to have been the object of our Lord to inform his disciples that their poverty would be no hinderance to securing to themselves the advantages within reach of the rich; and that neither would it furnish them with any excuse for the neglect of those duties whose performance seemed facilitated by the possession of wealth. He makes his appeal to a great principle-whether in the nature of things or the dealings of God-the principle that, if a man be faithful up to the measure of his ability, or unjust up to the measure of his ability, when that ability has been small, it may be concluded that he would be equally faithful or equally unjust were his ability greatly multiplied, and that therefore he may be dealt with in both cases as though there had been this multiplication, and the correspondent increase, whether in fidelity or injustice. But though we may easily trace the bearing of Christ's assertion on other parts of the chapter, as I have already intimated, it is not to be denied that the principle he announces is not self evident, but requires to be illustrated before it can be received. Whatever may be said of the particular case of the employment of wealth, and the equality that may be established between the widow, who has but two mites to give, and the man of vast means, who has thousands at his disposal, there is clearly some difficulty in understanding, as a general truth, that to be faithful in the least is to be faithful in much, and that to be unjust in the least is to be unjust also in much. At all events, there are certain limitations which must be put on the assertion, or it must be interpreted with reference to the temper that is displayed, rather than to the action which may have been performed. We can hardly question that some men who are faithful in the least, would not also be faithful in much. The honesty which is proof against temptation whilst dishonesty would procure but a trifling advantage, might probably be overcome if great gain were to follow; and, upon the other hand, there might be men, who, though unjust in the least, would not also be unjust in the much; men who think it lawful to practice the mean trick, or the contemptible evasion, but who would shun the being engaged in any great fraud. We cannot well think that our Lord designed to affirm that every man who proved himself faithful in little matters would be as sure to be faithful in much; or that wherever there is dishonesty in some trifling particular, there would be as certainly dishonesty if greater trust were reposed. This would be practically to take no account of the differ ent strength of different temptations, or the various motives operating under different circumstances. But it seems evident from the connection which we have endeavored to trace between the text and the preceding verses, that our Lord refers to the estimate which God forms of human actions, an estimate which is made upon the dispositions which those actions display, rather than from the relative magnitude of the actions in the judgment of men. The man who has but little, but who is as charitable as his means will allow, is placed by God upon the same footing with another who has made an equally good use of far larger resources. The man who, with slender abilities, has done his utmost in the cause of righteousness, shall be accounted with as though his talents had been considerable, and his employment of them had been wholly in the service of God. And, upon the other hand, he who fails to improve the little which he has, shall incur the same condemnation as though the little had been much. This, we say, appears the scope of the assertion of our Lord. He is not actually to be understood as affirming that wherever there was faithfulness in the little, there would assuredly be in the much; or that injustice in the largest transactions must necessarily follow upon injustice in the least. There are, indeed, senses and degrees in which even this assertion may be substantiated, and we shall probably find occasion to refer to these hereaf ter; but we think it evident, from the context, that our Lord's chief design. was to state that men with very different powers and opportunities might occupy precisely the same position in God's sight, and that, consequently, it would not necessarily be any disadvantage to the poor man that he was so far behind the other in the ability to do good. The verse on which we are discoursing must be classed with those passages which affirm, in one way or another, that the different circumstances in which men are placed, their different capabilities and resources, as members of society, will not necessarily affect their future condition. Those who have been the highest, and those who have been the lowest upon earth, may ultimately receive precisely the |