SHALL I SMITE?

tained in the Apostle's words,

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"Jesus Christ,

the same yesterday, and to day, and forever." (Heb. xiii. 8.) I verily believe that Paul was right. And as Jesus will always retain his living love, he will never ask the question, " My Father, shall I smite them?" nor any question equivalent to it. He will be ready to give them the bread and water of truth and righteousness. How know we this? Listen!" Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he

is

excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. xv. 24-28.) This luminous passage sweeps away those ideas which had their birth in times, when "to smite" was the prevailing force. It leaves us to believe, that the spirit

which Jesus embodied in the father of the wandering prodigal, is a noble ray of love from the God of all grace and mercy, whose benignant government is paternal, is disciplinary in its punishment, wise in its reward, and endless in its gifts. It permits us to look upon Jesus as the Saviour; as always successfully laboring to redeem, anywhere and everywhere, so long as sin and suffering shall continue to exist; and as one, whose mission will not be accomplished, until every source of evil shall be eradicated from the world of mind.

Thus we discover, that Christianity has no representative in the warrior-king with his words of smitings, and that it is rightly symbolized by the prophet with his merciful spirit; only, the little spring which lived in the prophet's heart in the Saviour and Christianity, has become a vast and deep sea, whose waters refresh the world. The nature of the Gospel, the character of its doctrine, the present and future aims and purposes which it is designed to accomplish, the admirable power and purifying tendencies of its moral precepts, show conclusively, that it is the direct antagonist of the mere brute force power

of all wickedness, of all error, and that it is struggling to redeem the race, by saving man from these enemies. Therefore, Christianity has not taken full possession of a nation, a community, a family, a society, an individual, until it has subdued and disarmed the warrior-kings of unruly passions in their souls, and made them servants to enlightened intellect, and earnest affection and virtue, in the work of holiness and love. And just in proportion as they get away from these evils, and put on the spirit of the Saviour, so do they approach the Christian idea of right and happiness, and grow in that love, which is the noblest of the divine graces.

SERMON XI.

THE EXCELLENCE OF CHARITY.

BY REV. THOMAS WHITTEMORE.

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"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."-1 COR. xiii. 13.

At the time of the writing of this epistle, there were serious divisions in the church at Corinth.

God had given different gifts to different members of the church, (1 Cor. xii. 4-11.) These were important to all. No one, on account of the gift which he possessed, could despise another. The church was, like the human body, composed of many members. "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you," (verse 21.) Thus the apostle sought to make the different members of the church feel their dependence upon each other. He exhorted them to "covet