been abashed by crime, that superstition has been crushed by fanaticism. The enemies of the Lord have fought against each other, and the wrath of man has been made to praise Him.

But now be still, and know that He is God. He is not exalted thus; "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." He needs other and nobler service; and who will rise up for Him? There is a fearful company drawing near; they are strong to destroy; they are waiting to do the behest of the Most High. They have often risen up against the evildoers. There is a black banner floating over them, and they are led on by Death himself; their names are Cholera, and Plague, and Famine, and Madness; and they promise great things. 'We will,' say they, 'hang on the track of the idolatrous procession, we will guide the wheels of Juggernaut, we will haunt the Mecca caravan; we will sack the crowded city; we will sweep away these workers of iniquity, and cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.'

Behold them, my brethren; see them as John saw them, in the Apocalypse; those fire-breathing horses of death, with those that sat upon them. "Their heads are as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths come fire and brimstone, and smoke; and by these is the third part of men killed;" and yet, as it was in that vision of John, "the rest of the men that are not killed by these plagues, repent not of the works of their hands, that they should not

worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk; neither repent they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

But the Lord calls again, mightily and with a loud voice, "Who will rise up for Me against the evildoers?" And now a peaceful group come smiling on, confident in their strength, instinct with hope and promise they are Science and Commerce, Civilization and Law. They engage to explode the superstitions of the people by accurate knowledge, to revolutionize the ideas of men by predicting and modifying the forces of nature; by making man master of his circumstances. Commerce will bind the nations into new and better fellowship, and promises at some great jubilee to break the fetters of every slave, to undermine every tyranny, to weld into one living brotherhood the savage and the civilized. Science will loosen the spell of many a dire and deadly superstition, and, as a great revelation of the ways of Him who worketh all in all, will prepare the way for clearer conceptions of Him who is the one Father as well as the one Lord of the spirits of all flesh. But, my brethren, let us never be led away by the delusion that powers like these can reach the root of the evil. Commerce and science may produce a temporary effect, and give rise to new evils that they cannot check. If the passions of men are not subdued, science and commerce and

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wealth will only provide stronger stimulus and more extended means of gratification. Our matchless navigation, all the lessons of the stars, the discoveries of the astronomer, the toils of the meteorologist, may be devoted to the horrors of the middle passage, and to the ruthless use of transcendent power. Our science is perfecting the art of destruction, and our commerce may be made the agency with which civilization may bully the weak, tyrannize over the helpless, and rob the paralyzed. A science, which in itself gives no revelation of God, introducing itself among a nation of virtual secularists, will, it is to be feared, transform them by thousands into the most unimpressible of all unbelievers—the daring blasphemers against God. Science may furnish new links between man and nature, commerce may bind him more closely to his fellow, but after they have done their utmost, we hear the loud, the awful voice of God still urging the inquiry, "Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?" who will come the help of the Lord against the mighty?" These hired servants of God have done their work or are doing it, but the courteous Hindu or Mahometan who can spell through the Principia of Newton, and make something of the chemistry of Liebig, who can read our Shakespeare and Milton, and trade in our cotton and broad-cloth, has shewn himself to have still the soul of the tiger and the spirit of the asp. Science, commerce, luxury, a polished language and unlimited resources, have had their day

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before now and utterly failed, having miserably succumbed in revelry, suicide, and hell. Never let us hope that we can save Africa with cotton, or India with railways; the Moslem is not softened by a telegraph, nor the Dyak of Borneo purified by geometry. God calls for other helpers and reiterates the appeal, "Who will rise up for Me against the evil-doers? who will stand up for Me against the workers of iniquity?" and lo! by the side of all these shadowy forms, an angel of light, "a mighty angel, comes down out of heaven, and the earth is lightened with his glory; a rainbow is upon his head, and his face is as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and he hath in his hand A LITTLE BOOK." The thunders utter their voices, and "another angel appears, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto all kindreds and people and languages that dwell on all the face of the earth." There is in the Gospel of God, in the revelation of His real nature, that which can, and does, take the soul of man captive, which is equal to every emergency that can arise, which is God's hammer for breaking the stony heart, God's sword for piercing even to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intents of the heart. In the Gospel we have that description of the Most High that undermines the necessity which the trembling conscience has felt for its own base and corrupt representations of God. The Gospel appeals to man's affections, and seeks to enlist them on the side of virtue. It grasps and occupies the intellect with the most

satisfactory solutions of the great problem of destiny, and while it appeases the struggling violence of the great spiritual wrestler, and with magic force hushes the passionate eagerness of the student of truth, a little child is charmed by the simplicity that is in Christ. There is no kind of evil which it cannot mitigate. It eats out the fangs of remorse, and heals the wounds and torments of fear; it assuages the feverish thirst for other things, and lifts the soul above the tyranny of sense, the crush of little cares, the burden of heavy responsibilities, the pangs of bereavement, disappointment, and ruin. It is a compensation for the bitterest lot, it is a joy unspeakable and full of glory. In the Gospel of Christ there is the only stay of human corruption, the only rival to the world's fascinations, the only power which is merciful to the sinner while it is just to his sin. It is God's method to overwhelm and subdue the heart of man, to change the evil-doer, not by His threats, but by His amnesty-not by the thunder of law, but by the sovereign pleading of love. It is a power which God's creature can wield for God, a method of conquering God's enemies in which even man may become a captain, a hero, in which all the energies of human nature are called into play, all the developments of science and commerce and industry are laid under contribution to do His will. Wheresoever this power has gone it has gained victories. Every sanctuary, every log-cabin where the name of Jesus has been breathed, is a scene where a battle has been