isles of the seas have been flocking to their Saviour as doves to their windows; and though it be only a partial accomplishment of the prophecy, yet whole countries even now are emphatically called Christian; and in some, it is a stain of no ordinary die which rests upon the character of an individual, when he is designated by any other than the name of Christ.

This is the progress of reason, the victory of truth, the power of God. It is a testimony to the efficacy of Christian principle, and a pledge of its wider diffusion. Kings and governors have already proved themselves nursing fathers in the kingdom of Christ, and princes and rich men have brought presents. His sons are now coming from afar, and his daughters from the ends of the earth. He is commanding the north to give up, and the south to keep not back; and his people are travelling from the east and the west, and sitting down in the kingdom as heirs with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Nor is this likely to continue only for a season, but the work must proceed until the knowledge of his name cover the earth as the waters cover the channel of the deep.

Means for the accomplishment of this are provided by the Head of all principality and power, and when he gives the word, great will be the company of them that publish it. The religion of Jesus is not a contingent production on the earth unforeseen by the great Jehovah, nor is it a crude, undigested scheme. It is the production of infinite wisdom and counsel, a system of means adapted to the end, not irrational, nor left to

the caprice of men. It comes as a whole, principles and precepts, offices and official characters, all of divine appointment, with divine authority and of divine obligation. And those who receive one part should accept all, and those who neglect any part have a right

to none.

It is the duty of all to whom the gospel has come to seek its extension, to adopt for this purpose the most efficient and most scriptural means, and daily to pray for a promised blessing. The likeliest way in which success is to be obtained, is in the offices of divine appointment; since this is submission to the divine will, and the way of obedience to divine authority. It is the path which infinite wisdom has prescribed, and surely the best fitted for the object to be accomplished; and it is the high-way of righteousness in which we cannot err, unto which the promise of blessings is attached, and where they most probably, yea, assuredly, shall be enjoyed.

Ordinances receive the weight of divine authority, and the character of a positive institute, when they are observed in the practice, especially if it be the invariable practice of inspired men, as much as when they are prescribed in a ritual and enjoined by a law. Wherever God has designed to effect a great work, he has sent forth his accredited servants; sometimes by extraordinary means only, but which have borne the satisfactory marks of divine interposition, and which have always been to accomplish an extraordinary work; on some occasions by means of a mixed nature,

ordinary and extraordinary; and at other times, by merely ordinary and regular methods. When the nation of Israel was to be delivered, and a type to be given of the great redemption, Moses was immediately appointed, without the intervention of man ;-when the Israelites were to be taught, and prophecies to be uttered regarding a coming Saviour, the schools of the prophets provided, and the Holy Ghost inspired, the men who should declare the will of God;-and when the gospel was to be diffused and its truths substantiated, and its principles and precepts clearly defined and enforced, Jesus Christ ordained, and by his Spirit qualified, the apostles for the work to be accomplished; but when pastors and teachers were given for the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, his apostles were sent, and his evangelists were left to ordain elders in every church; and when any of his servants have been called to any particular departments of labour, such as evangelizing some appropriate district, their brethren have been guided to set them apart to the work whereunto the Holy Ghost had called them.

The regular course has been when God was about to employ and call forth his servants in his work, that they have been set apart by instituted ordinances. Such ordinances were occasionally administered by one, where only one authorized servant could be present; but where two or more could meet, they all united in the solemn engagement. In either case the individual was recognized as holding his office by

divine appointment, and was commanded to feed the church of God, over which the Holy Ghost had made him overseer.

God has connected promises with an attendance upon, and a conformity to, instituted ordinances. Positive ordinances are instituted not for any moral efficacy which is natural to, or inherent in them, but that they may be a means of testifying to the individual concerned, his need of blessings peculiarly required in sustaining his official character; and that by his attention to them he may evince his willingness to serve, and his readiness to obey and glorify God. This is the proof of discipleship, that because he loves Christ he keeps his commandments. God has connected even the disposition to obedience with the blessings which he has provided, and has made even the Spirit of desire the earnest of the purchased possession.

Obedience to positive precepts is as much the duty of the professor of revealed religion, as is conformity to abstract moral requirements; and attention to possitive divine injunctions will secure the blessing of God, as much as obedience to any even the highest moral precept. The fall of man, and all the woe it entailed, was by the breach of a positive precept, "Thou shall not eat of it." Attendance upon the Sabbath is enjoined with a force partly positive and partly moral, but of the former more'; yet the richest spiritual blessings are promised to the righteous observance of it. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," as connected with the scheme of salvation, is strictly a positive pre

cept; and, consider the infinite blessings attached to compliance," thou shalt be saved!" This is wise and just; it is the doing of God, and is wondrous in our eyes. It is the heart which God requires: a right spirit is his own gift, and he will be glorified in the work of his own hands. He has said: “all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." The word of our God shall endure for ever: He is a rock, his work is perfect, nor will he change in that which he hath spoken; he will not disappoint his people in the blessing for which he hath caused them to hope. Blessings have always been received in attendance, in the faithful attendance on divine ordinances. The Holy Ghost was given by the laying on of hands, and by the prayer of Peter and John. His influences were imparted to the certain disciples found at Ephesus by Paul; and Timothy is directed to stir up the gift of God which is in him by the putting on of the hands of Paul: in the parallel passage it is called, the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. Through the labours of men, thus designated, and a few called by an extraordinary appointment, the gospel of Christ was promulgated in most parts of the world, and churches built up and established in every notable place, within the first century of the Christian era; and from the neglect or abuse of this ordinance, the choice of unfit persons, or the addition of ceremonies not of divine appointment, the Christian world was reduced to a state of gross ignorance and sin, most dishonourable to the church of Christ.