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or woman whispered. There, in their mutable but unerring characters, mixed with the earliest as with the latest sighs of mortality, stand forever recorded, vows unredeemed, promises unfulfilled, perpetuated in the united movements of each particle, the testimony of man's changeful will!" And. I may add, the proof of man's guilt; and equally, also, the evidence of the sorrow of the penitent, and of the zeal and fervor of the pious.

"If the Almighty stamped on the brow of the earliest murderer the indelible and visible mark of his guilt, he has also established laws, by which every succeeding criminal is not less irrevocably chained to the testimony of his crime. For every atom of his mortal frame, through whatever changes its severed particles may migrate, will still retain, adhering to it through every combination, some movement derived from the very muscular efforts by which the crime was perpetrated."

"When man and all his race shall have disappeared from the face of our planet, ask every particle of air still floating over the unpeopled earth, and it will record the cruel mandate of the tyrant, the bitter words of unkindness, the oaths of the profane, the filthy words of the wicked. Interrogate every wave that breaks unimpeded on ten thousand desolate shores, and it will give evidence of the last gurgle of the waters which closed over the head of the dying victim of piracy, or of suicide. Confront the murderer with every corporeal atom of his immolated victim, the seducer with the victim of his baseness, and in the still quivering movements of each atom he will read the evidence of his guilt, and hear the echo of the damning charge, Thou art the man!'"

Most truly then may it be averred, that the air we breathe, the loud booming of ocean's billows dashing on the sandy shore, the earth itself, and every individual particle of which its vast mass is composed, unite in corroboration of what the Son of God declares: "There is nothing hid that shall not be manifested." Man is responsible in every act and every word, and ample and minute is the retribution awaiting him!

For His structure, corporeal and moral both, implies it; the perfections of God his Maker demand it; the Bible unequivo cally asserts it; men have always, everywhere, universally expected it, and they do now expect it. Many facts are constantly occurring, even now to foreshadow it; for the guilty has to work in secret, and vengeance, though tardy, is sure to overtake him; man's internal structure prepares him for it, since conscience foretells it, and undying memory qualifies him to meet and appreciate it; while the material universe itself is so arranged as to establish and secure it, in the preservation of evidence full in point to every fact, and that cannot be lost; for even the elements are God's ever vigilant and active police!

So that the elements amid which we dwell, the very material substance of which our bodies are composed, the roar of the restless ocean, the howl of the wintry tempest, and the softest breezes of the summer's eve, all-all proclaim it: "There is nothing hid that shall not be manifested !"

There is one thought awakened by the subject now discussed, which may well arrest our attention: How unutterable is the worth of the blood of Christ! The God of nature is the God who will judge us! On every particle of the material universe we inhabit, this God has impressed laws, the laws of nature, which render every atom upon us and around us, our whole life through, a witness to the truth, in every act and deed of our probationary life; the very act we do stamps upon the earth we tread and upon the air we breathe the impress of the fact, and secures the evidence of our guilt, truthful, unchanging, incorruptible, and eternal. Man's vigilance we may baffle, man's power we may elude; but Omniscience we can neither baffle nor deceive; and Almighty power we can neither resist nor flee from. Let life flow on, then, smoothly and tranquilly to its close, still judgment awaits us! Oh! my hearer, in the hour when, summoned to meet God as your judge, you look around for shelter from the gathering storms of wrath, whither will you flee? If you look to the earth on which you passed your term of probation, its every particle bears the marks of your sin, and presents evidence of your guilt! If you would breathe forth the words of entreaty on the air, the air itself rolls back upon you the thick-coming echoes of your words of folly, of sin, it may be of daring blasphemy, spoken on earth. If you would lift up your hands to deprecate the stroke of justice, every particle of matter that goes to form the substance of those hands, and of that whole body so long perverted to purposes of sin, shows the dark stains of your ill doing, the evidence of your guilt. Heaven blazes on your head with the kindling fires of justice! Hell rolls its billows, dashing and roaring hoarsely the demand for justice! Your own trembling heart groans forth its foreboding of justice! Nor heaven, earth, nor hell, yields one solitary spot secure from the desolating storm of Heaven's avenging justice-save only the Cross of Christ, and where the blood which flowed down that cross has been applied. That blood cleanses from all sin. That blood alone washes out the stains of guilt, stills the rolling thunders of God's vengeance, quenches the kindling fires of his wrath, and with its soft pleadings for mercy, overpowers, gently, but effectually, the rising cry of justice, of hell, and of the whole universe arrayed against the trembling offender, and demanding his condemnation! With all nature rising up in evidence against you, every material atom you have ever used, or touched, or felt, standing forth in attestation of your unworthiness, demanding your doom, and ex

hibiting the proof, clear, full, and imperishable, of your guilt, the pledge and guarantee of your condemnation,-proof, to buy off which the wealth of both the Indies were worthless, to rebut which the learning, the wisdom, the skill, and ingenuity of men and angels combined were all impotent,-nothing, nothing but the blood of Christ will aught avail. But that blood extinguishes all this damning proof of guilt, calms the frowning face of Justice itself, shields the trembling believer from all harm, and leads him safely home to the bosom of God-the paradise of the blest!

Fellow-sinners, now-now, while yet it may avail-ere yet the storm of Heaven's wrath bursts upon your head-apply to that Saviour trust in that precious blood-and you shall live, live forever! To you and to me, there's nothing worth a thought in comparison of the one grand inquiry: How may I find myself washed in the blood of Christ? Seek it now-plead for it now --trust in that blood now, and the fact that you have done so will stand forth prominent above all else, in that last awful day, when it shall be obvious to all, amid the roarings of the last conflagration," There is nothing hid that shall not be manifested !" Amen!

SERMON DLI.

BY REV. D. B. COE,

SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

GAIN FROM CHRIST'S EXALTATION.

"And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father."JOHN 14: 12.

THE great crisis of our Saviour's history has at length arived. His enemies have bribed one of his professional friends to deliver his Master into their hands, and under cover of night they have already assembled, with the traitor at their head, to arrest the innocent victim. He well knows their designs, and sees that "the hour has come." But while his enemies are preparing their torches and arms, determined that he shall escape their hands no longer, how is the Saviour himself occupied? In arming his friends to resist the expected assault? No! In planning measures for his escape? No! He is administering comfort and encouragement to his disconsolate followers. For the last time he had eaten with them the feast of the passover, and had instituted an ordinance to commemorate his death. He had then announced distinctly his approaching departure. They are overwhelmed with sorrow. What can they do without their beloved master? They are few in number, humble in rank, despised and persecuted by their countrymen; and if their Saviour is taken away, the shout of triumph will be raised over his grave, and his cause will be buried with him. No wonder they are disconsolate, for they cannot comprehend the meaning of this unexpected bereavement. Christ, therefore, though in full view of his coming agonies, proceeds kindly to impart consolation to them: "Let not your heart be troubled."

He first points to the mansions in heaven which he is going to prepare for them, and then assures them, that though he is about to depart, his cause shall survive. Nay, by the fact of his departure his cause shall gain new strength. I go to do more for it in heaven than I could do on earth; and through the aid which I will impart, each one of my followers shall be able to accomplish more than I should do if I should remain. "He that believeth on me, the works which I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father."

Wonderful words! Some have not dared to believe them in

their plain and obvious meaning, and therefore have restricted their application to the working of miracles. They would have ns believe that Christ meant simply to assure his disciples that they should work greater miracles than he had wreught. But the promise in this sense was not fulfilled. No miracles were or could be greater than those which Jesus wrought. "He made the dumb to sing his praises, the lame to leap for joy, the deaf to hear his wonders, the blind to see his glory." The winds were hushed, the sea was calmed, demons fled, water became wine, the hungry were filled, the trees withered, the dead revived, at his omnipotent word. And when he is laid in the grave, where, to mere mortals, there is no more work, he performs his crowning wonder. He throws off the cerements of the tomb, bursts away the barricade of rock, and walks forth a conqueror. What mightier works than these did his disciples perform? But it is said that, while Jesus wrought his miracles by words, Peter's shadow was made to heal the sick, and Paul's handkerchief to cast out devils. So, I answer, the Saviour's touch, and even the hem of his garment, did the same things.

But that Christ did not refer to the working of miracles by his disciples, is evident also from the fact that this was not the comfort they sought. What they wanted most of all, was the assurance of the success of the Saviour's cause, and of his presence and aid for that end. Whether this aid were afforded in the form of miraculous gifts, or of strength to endure temptation and to resist enemies, they cared not, if only the cause of their blessed Master might triumph. It was in reference to this, doubtless, that Christ meant to comfort and encourage them. He would have them understand that his death would be no detriment to his cause. On the contrary, from that moment its greatest triumphs should commence. They should be able to do more without his personal presence than they had done with it. Even the humblest believer in him should have greater success in the work of saving lost men than had attended his own labors. Does any one say that the expression, "greater works," is more descriptive of the working of miracles than of the conversion of sinners? I answer, No. It was a great work to stop the orbs of heaven in their course, as did Joshua; but it is a greater work to arrest in his career of guilt a self-destroying sinner. It is a great work to kindle a fire from heaven upon an altar of wood, as did Elijah; but it is a greater work to kindle the fire of Christian love upon a sinner's heart. It is a great work to raise a dead body to life, as Christ raised Lazarus; but it is a greater work to quicken with spiritual life a soul dead in trespasses and sins. There is no greater work on earth or in heaven than the conversion of a soul.

If this be the import of Christ's promise, then it was most

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