and hard as flint must be the heart, that does not here swell with emotions which language cannot utter. There is something so ineffably tender and endearing in the Saviour's parting counsels to his little family... on their union to himself and among themselves, especially in his parting prayer that his disciples should love one another, that he who can read the latter part of St. John's gospel, without feeling his heart moved, I had almost said melted, has much reason to question his love to Christ.

VIII. If we love Christ, we shall possess a spirit of general good will to our fellow creatures. We shall embrace the whole family of man,' in our benevo. lent regards.

The gospel recognises no bond of union among intelligent beings, but love. When this becomes an universal principle of action, as assuredly it will, in God's appointed time, men will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into, pruning hooks.' Earthly rulers will reverence the Ruler of heaven: earthly laws will accord with his laws. Man will cease to be the enemy of man. Peace, holiness and joy will pervade the earth. This will make happy families, happy nations and a happy world. A world, Ohow unlike one that is filled with discord and sin! When shall infatuated mortals, blind to their own true interest, cease to hate a religion which proclaims peace on earth and good will to men! When shall this divine religion extend its heavenly influence over the nations and heal this distracted, bleeding world of its enmities, its wars, and its miseries! Fly swiftly the intermediate years...Come, O come the delightful period,' when nations shall be born to God in a day, and unnumbered millions feel the power, and share in the blessings of gospel love! For this long predicted joyful day, shall not the friends of Christ and of human happiness, pray with united hearts!! Amen...even so, come Lord Jesus.'

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Finally If we love Christ, we shall desire the universal spread of his gospel.

Millions of our race are perishing in ignorance of a Saviour. The infant settlements, spread over the wide wilderness of our own country, are lamentably destitute of religious instruction. Vast objects are here presented to awaken our Christian philanthropy: Objects which require us to love in deed as well as in word...to act as well as pray. Our brethren in the eastern hemisphere have nobly led the way and invite us to emulate their labors of benevolence. While thousands have joined in the animated prayer, to the head of the church, Thy kingdom come.' The heralds of the gospel have met around the globe. Where Satan's empire had remained quiet for ages, the standard of the cross has been displayed. Yes, in this sinful world, men have been found, that from love to Christ and immortal souls, could quit their pleasant homes for a dreary wilderness; encounter the perils of the deep to embrace their pagan brethren; and to publish the unsearchable riches of redeeming grace, could traverse the snowy cliffs of Greenland or the burning plains of Africa. To unite in this work of love, a great door and effectual is opened' to the christians of America. More ministers are wanted. To say nothing of the lack of able and faithful pastors, for the supply of old and vacant churches; in the new settlements, the field is spaci, ous but the labourers are emphatically few. Their condition claims the commisseration of all that have hearts to pray. O how earnestly should we implore the great head of the church, that he would raise up more Mayhew's and Elliot's and Brainard's; that he would sanctify the hearts of young men for himself; give them zeal to labor, and holy courage to suffer, if need be, in his service! The signs of the times summon us to diligence. The kingdom of Satan must fall...it will fall. But its dying struggles may

shake the moral world to its foundation. Before the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth, the contest betwixt truth and error, will probably be mighty and terrible. The trumpet sounds. Soldiers of Emanuel! prepare for battle. Is christianity then in danger? No. Impregnable walls surround the beloved city: Zion's God is wiser...is mightier than all her foes. He will take care of his own cause; but not by miracles. He will not set the elements to work to print bibles: he will not bid the winds blow stone and timber into temples of worship: he will not appoint the rocks or trees to preach the gospel...No; he will fulfil his own promises by his own means. He will cause christianity to triumph and spread over the earth, by awakening its friends to united activity and prayer, and by raising up gospel ministers, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, who shall be ready both to be bound and to die also for the name of the Lord Jesus.'

The subject will be finished with four reflections. 1st. Christians are not sufficiently awake and engaged in the service of their divine master.

The petty pursuits of private interest, the applause, emoluments or contests of this transitory world, enkindle our burning zeal; while alas, our dull hearts are often indifferent to the honor of the immortal king, and the blessings of his everlasting kingdom! We crawl like reptiles; when we should stand up like men, and run, like christians, the race set before us. How do the children of this world rebuke our timidity and our indolence! See what waging of wars, enlisting armies and equipping fleets! what rapid journeys...what buying and selling...what industry, in the shop, in the field, in the market! Whence all this exertion? Do men spend days and nights of anxious toil...traverse the ocean and dig in the earth for the empty, fleeting happiness of time? They are in earnest. And should not men be in earnest that

seek the honor of Christ, and hope for solid, induring happiness in heaven? We go about our business with two much indifference. We read our bibles, as though we read them not. We pray, as though we prayed not. We preach, as though we preached not. We hear, as though we heared not. If the love of Christ dwell in the soul, it will burn and shine so that its warmth and light may be perceived by others. Brethren, shall the enemies of the cross longer triumph in our luke-warmness? Let us put them to silence by holding fast our profession and living like Christians.

2dly. Fellow Christians, are too great strangers. They are not free and familiar enough in religious conversation. A more perfect acquaintance with each other's spiritual circumstances would much better enable them to perform all the important duties of Christian fellowship. How many who meet at the same communion table here, and expect to meet in the same heaven hereafter, reside but a few miles, or perhaps rods asunder, and yet from year to year, do not spend an hour in friendly, unreserved interchange of views and feelings concerning the greatest of all subjects---the interest of the redeemer's kingdom and Is such the influ

the salvation of their own souls. ence of Gospel Love? In no wise. The heart lies at the root of the tongue : out of its abundance, the mouth speaketh. On this principle, I affirm, some reasonable conclusion may be drawn, as to the state of vital piety in a church, from the freedom which its members enjoy, among themselves, in religious conversation. Can the business or trifles of this earth always employ our tongues, if our hearts are in heaven? Can we make those our chosen companions who expect from us so dreadful a compliment to their characters or our own, as to forbear speaking of him whom our soul loveth? The example of antient saints, recorded in God's holy book, demands our

imitation, Then they that feared the Lord spake of ten, one to another.'

3dly. We are not faithful enough in maintaining discipline. Solemn are, our vows of allegiance to Christ terrible the consequences of slighting his authority. Alas, brethren, that the order, peace, beauty and prosperity of his church should so often be marred by the careless or wilful negligence of his disciples! Alas, that when men point to his suffering cause, saying What are these wounds? we are so often compelled to answer Those with which he was wounded in the house of his friends.' The world joins with the bible in demanding that the visible friends of Christ should do more than others.' Shall we cast a stumbling block before blind sinners to endanger their everlasting interests? Shall we tempt them to the false and fatal conclusion, that the church of God is a house divided against itself? Shall we mourn at the prevalence of bold impiety, and sigh over the decline of vital Godliness, while our own backslidings contribute to its decline? In plain truth, the discipline of our churches is awfully relaxed. In too many cases, it is nothing but a name, How can

churches be in health and prosper, when the cords, with which Christ has bound them, are cut or untied... When the sacred inclosures of our Zion are laid open to the rude assaults of its enemies?

4thly. Humble, united, persevering prayer is a duty in which the visible family of Christ are too deficient. We pray indeed; but do we preserve the spirit of the duty? Do we pray as though we expected to be heard? Through the coldness of our hearts, do not our devotions often die on our tongues? If the inspection of our own characters and wants, does not furnish sufficient motives to animate our prayers, can we not feel for a world of sinners around us? Can we not feel for our guilty country---overspread with prayerless families, despisers of the gospel? Are we