estate: for when a covenant is broken by one party it is not disannulled. The other party demands the fulfilment of its conditions or the penalty of a failure from all the covenantees to the expiration of the last item in its provisions. Observe, therefore, that all the gifts and callings of God are on his part without repentance or change, and that we are all living, while in Adam the first, under the consequences of a broken covenant. How many covenants, William, can you find in the Old and New Testaments of divine authority?

William. There are six in the Old Testament:-The Adamic, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Sinaitic, the Aaronic, or sacerdotal, and the Monarchic with David and his line.

Olympas. Do you concur, Reuben, with that view of the matter? Reuben. I think there are a plurality of covenants with Abrahamone concerning his natural offspring and their inheritance, and another concerning Christ.

Olympas. Can

you give us the names of these covenants ? Reuben. Paul speaks of the "covenant concerning Christ," made four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law. Gal. iii. 17. And Stephen calls the covenant found in Gen. xvii.," the covenant of circumcision." This was some twenty-four or twenty-five years after the former.

Olympas. Whom did these two covenants respect?

Thomas. That concerning Christ respects the whole world; that respecting circumcision respected the seed of Abraham only, or his natural offspring.

Olympas. What is the date of the covenant of circumcision, William?

William. It was made in the hundredth year of Abraham, four hundred and five years before giving the law.

Olympas. And what the date of" the covenant concerning Christ ?" William. It was made in the year of Abraham, seventy-five, or four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law; and respected spiritual blessings only through Christ.

Olympas. There are, then, two covenants with Abraham-one concerning flesh; another concerning spirit-his natural offspring and Christ; the one represented by Hagar and Ishmael-the other by Sarah and Isaac. Gal. iv. So that we have two at least with Abraham. Indeed, some reckon three-one concerning the Messiah, Gen. xii; one concerning Canaan, Gen. xv.; one concerning his fleshly seed, Gen. xvii. But the two last being engrossed, Gen. xvii., make but one covenant concerning his fleshly seed, and that leaves the other for his spiritual or believing children wherever they may be found. We may then count a covenant with Adam, one with Noah, two with Abraham, one with the whole nation at Sinai, one with Aaron, and one with David-in all, seven. The great covenantees are Adam and his heirs, Noah and his heirs, Abraham and his heirs natural, Abraham and his heirs spiritual, the Jews and their heirs, Aaron and his heirs, David and his heirs. Now, to understand these seven covenants, is to understand the Old Testament well, and that is the best preparation for the New. But as I wish frequently to touch upon these covenants you all comprehend their meaning, I will dismiss them for the

till

C

present with one observation, namely-You are all interested directly in the first two-passively, indeed, as were all the fowls of heaven and the cattle in the Noahic covenant, of which we now treat. You were born under the dominion of two; but none of you by virtue of mere natural birth can inherit the blessings of the covenant concerning Christ. You must become the children of the Christian covenant by faith in the Messiah. Then, indeed, "if you be Christ's, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise."

SHORT DISCOURSES.-No. IX.

THE SOWER IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

"The kingdom of God is like seed."-Mark iv.

A. C.

NATURE and religion then are twin sisters, and wear the face of God. They are of divine origin and have many features of resemblance to each other. Nature is a type of religion. The stars that gem the vault of night are fit symbols of the illustrious personages who have by their piety and labours adorned the religious heavens, and who, for their mighty deeds, are destined to shine there for ever and ever; the great sun himself, shaking his yellow locks round half the world at once, is but a proper emblem of him who is at once both his architype and antitype-the source of all light and life, both of nature and religion" the Sun of Righteousness"-our Lord Jesus Christ; even the mighty forces which work invisibly in the physical world are shadows of those spiritual powers in operation in the kingdom of God, "which is like seed cast into the ground." The Gospel is "like seed which a man casts into the ground, and sleeps and rises night and day, and the fruit springs he knows not how, (for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself), first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; but when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle because the harvest is come.' We will here re-state the Gospel in its grand elements, and afterwards do as we promised in our first number under this head; we will argue out the two propositions previously deduced from the parable.

The great and glorious offers of the Gospel, then, are comprehended chiefly in these three matters: namely,

1. Remission of past sins through the blood of Christ.

2. The Holy Spirit in all future time.

3. Eternal life at last.

These are the things in the Gospel which, if we sow them in the public mind, will grow, and bring forth in beauty and freshness a harvest of converts to God. But they must be sown, and sown skillfully too. They must be thrown broadcast into the souls of men; the old, the young, the foolish and the wise, the rich and the poor, the peasant and the prince, must alike have the knowledge of the remission of sins, the Spirit of Christ, and the resurrection from the dead, embalmed in their heart, and emblazoned on their understanding with an effulgence of light from which they shall not be able to retreat. Men must hear the Gospel stated, argued, defended, and enforced

clearly and unequivocally. Justification, sanctification, and glorification, must be held up and held out, explained, illustrated, unfolded, and offered to mankind. "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Do ministers then desire to see the fruit of their labours? Let them "preach the Word," let them be "instant in season, out of season.' "Blessed," says the Prophet, "are they that sow by all waters; who drive thither the feet of the ox and the ass."

1. It is the duty of all the ministers of the Word, then, according to the parable, to hold forth the Gospel of our salvation to all the worldto proclaim unceasingly in the hearing of all men the remission of sins by the blood of the great sacrificial victim, our Lord Jesus Christ, the sanctifications of the Spirit of God, and the resurrection from the dead.

It is a right fair sight to see the lusty farmer stalking across the furrowed field, with the seedsheet slung over his broad shoulders, and scattering upon the bosom of mother earth the choicest of his grain. Apart from experience, it might appear hazardous, but the man knows it must be done, he knows that, if he would reap, he must sow. He therefore buries in the pregnant earth the seed of grain, and believes that heaven favouring the early and the latter rains being given, the rule is—“ four months, and then cometh harvest." Having performed his part he sleeps and wakes, and it grows, "he knows not how, for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself." The first argument for the affirmative of our proposition, therefore, is found in the fact, that the Gospel bears the same relation to the soul that seed does to the soil. It may indeed be objected here that "Man is under a curse, and naturally depraved." This must be admitted; but a curse does not change the nature of men and things, but only their destiny. The earth also is under a curse for man's sake. Cain, Canaan, and Hain, were all cursed; but they did not become depraved because they were cursed, but were cursed because they had first become depraved. As the holy Apostle has said, "The field that beareth thorus and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end (destiny) is to be burnt." Heb. vi. Although, therefore, the earth and man-the soul and the soil—are under a curse, and destined to be burnt, yet the nature and powers, and faculties, of both, remain; and so we have the commandment of God to cultivate both-to sow the seed of grain in the one, and the seed of the Word of the Gospel in the other. The soul and the soil will indeed produce thorns and briars, and sin and iniquity, if left unblessed; but both have the powers of reproduction, the seed-growing faculty" they bring forth fruit of themselves," their energies bear a natural relation to grain and truth, the seed of earth and the seed of heaven, and will yield a harvest to reward both the farmer and the preacher by whom they are cultivated. "He thrust in the sickle." The Gospel, then, bears the same relation to the soul of man that seed of grain does to the soil of the earth. Hence it is the duty of the preacher to sow the public mind broadcast with the Gospel of the kingdom of God. If these things were not so, there would be no aptitude in the parable.

2. It is the prerogative of all who faithfully preach the Gospel-the

remission of sin, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life; justification, sanctification, and glorification, by Jesus Christ, to cherish the hope that sooner or later, their industry and religious care shall be rewarded— they shall reap if they faint not-they shall see first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear-they shall thrust in the sickle at last.

First. It is reasonable that the preacher of the Gospel should sow in hope of a harvest, in hope that what he preaches will convert the world. Would the farmer cultivate, or sow, without the hope of reaping? No. Neither would the preacher proclaim the Gospel, but in the assurance that he should reap the fruit of his labours, and bring souls to God through Jesus Christ.

Second. But again. It is scriptural that preachers should hope to convert mankind by the Gospel. "And he thrust in the sickle because the harvest is come.' Now, it is not for the sake of the farmer that this is stated by the Redeemer, but for the sake of the preacher, that he may preach in hope. Reason and Scripture, therefore, concur in encouraging the man of God to hope for the conversion of men when he faithfully and intelligibly proclaims the Gospel of the grace of God.

One may object-"I cannot conceive how this should be." It is not necessary that the man of God should know how this should be, but only whether it shall be. Has Christ revealed that it shall be ? The parable affirms that the man put in the sickle at last; but as the mode of operation in hidden principles is always mysterious, it is therefore added that "the seed grew he knew not how.' The manner in which the human soul seizes by faith on the doctrines of the Gospel, and appropriates them to herself, is known to God alone. All that we know of the matter is simply that it is done. It were very unlovely for husbandmen, however, to substitute discussions about the mode of operation among the vegetable forces for their own duty, and dispute of the hidden agencies until the season was past for sowing their field. They should be up and doing. This view of the matter may shed some light on those Scriptures in which Paul glories, and rejoices that Christ was preached even through envy, Paul knew that the power of the truth and its operation in foro conscientia in the court of men's consciences depended not on the good or bad qualities of those who spoke it, but upon the relation which it bore to the understanding and heart of those who heard it, and that the soul would bring forth fruit of herself whether they spake "of envy or of good will.” "He rose and slept, and it grew." When the husbandman has sown his field, the seed is thenceforth out of his hand; it will grow whether he sleep or wake. God gives the increase, And when the preacher has delivered the Word, he may sleep or wake; it is now with the man's conscience and his God. Thus, Paul plants and Apollos waters, and God gives the increase.*

*A most patriarchcal looking man informed the writer that he had received the knowledge of the Gospel three years before he confessed it, and that it had been working in his mind all that time. At last he confessed Christ, and was added to the church.

What then is the hope of him who leaves all for Christ to preach the Gospel? It is the hope of the farmer-the hope of him who casts seed into the ground. He has learned that the soul, when impregnated with the Living Word, will produce a harvest to God-that when Paul plants, and Apollos waters, God gives the increase, for it may not be, that Paul shall plant, and Apollos water, and God not give the increase. This would be to make Paul and Apollos more benevolent than God, which it were impious to assert. The law both in religion and nature is "God gives the increase." As Paul says, "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." If the increase in any case is withheld, this is the exception; the established law is, "God gives the increase."

What an exciting and sublime spectacle is presented to mankind at the present moment, in the unceasing labours of Protestant ministers, missionaries, and colporteurs, agonizing to sow the seed of the Word of God around the five zones of the world! See Morrison and Shuck in China-the land of the Hoanho and the Kinsakian, of the flowering tea-shrub, white copper, and the tallow-tree. Behold the man of God in southern India-the hurricane tearing up the sands of the desert and scattering them in burning showers around his head-exposed to the stifling heat by day, and the cold by night, he lingers in that far foreign land till the rainy season, and the tremendous storms of thunder and lightning are past, trusting that under a serener sky, he will yet enjoy the blessedness of sowing into the mind of the benighted heathen there, the seed of the kingdom of God. He leaves his footprints on the golden sands of the Ganges-amid its pearls and precious stones, and encounters there the leopard, the tiger, and rhinoceros, so be he may extend the boundaries of his Redeemer's kingdom, and impart to one hundred millions of Gentoos the blessings of the Gospel of peace. He would make the adored Sind and the Khrishna still more sacred. He would hallow them by the Word of God, and the ordinances of Messiah. The Saxon with his Bible in his hand, walks through Aracan, Burmah, Pegu, Tonquin, Siam, Camboja, and Cochin-China, watching his opportunity to illuminate the nationsseeking to arrest the attention of men who traffic in gold, and diamonds, and rubies, and ivory, and pearls, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all manner of precious stones. He is in Persia, the land of wheat, rice, millet, and silk, of the peach and the apricot. He wanders in Arabia, where grows the coffee, aloes, balın, frankinsence, and myrrh; and in Tartary, the country of lakes and rivers, of venison, wild-fowls, and game. He penetrates the realms of the Grand Turk; visits Aleppo, Smyrna, Bursa, Jerusalem, Diarabec, Bagdad, and Busora-the regions of corn and wine, of dates and olives, where men trade in silks and carpets, and goats' and camels' hair. He travels to Tombuck too, in Central Africa. From Tangier to the Cape, and thence to Babelmandel and Suez on the Red Sea, the beacon-fires of Saxon civilization and the Bible, arrest the gaze of the sable inhabitants of the benighted continent, and the preacher of the Gospel scatters far and wide, in these yet unsanctified lands, the knowledge of the kingdom of God.

S.