man" praise him, and bless the world, and restraining the remainder of wrath. See the avarice of Balaam and the treachery of Judas for illustrations under this head. Observe how the former made repeated efforts, for the sake of filthy lucre, to curse Israel, whilst God as frequently changed the curses into blessings. And in the case of the treachery of Judas, how delightful to contemplate, by far the most glorious event in the history of man, if not of the universe! And all was brought about by God overruling and controlling his malignity! It would seem to be a reflection on the understanding to do more than merely to suggest, that in all such instances the intention of the actor is turned aside, and results are produced foreign, yea contrary, to any purpose desired or even contemplated by him. Here, we may observe, an indirect but very considerable proof of the truth of the doctrine we contend for, inasmuch as these plans are often so deeply laid, and the spirit with which they are prosecuted so hostile to the interests of society. The termination of those plans in anything short of wide-spread misery among men, is perfectly astonishing; and we can account for it only on the hypothesis that the Almighty exercises a restraining providence. While upon this train of reflections, it might be appropriate to direct the pious mind to a contemplation of the almost innumerable instances in which the providence of God has warded off those evils which were justly to be anticipated. Let any candid man look over the history of his own life, and he will find, in instances not a few, that he has, by his own folly or sin, been brought into circumstances where, but for the intervention of divine power, he must have suffered the most serious evils. And thus, like Israel of old, with mountains on either hand, the sea before, and an infuriate enemy in the rear, refuge having failed, and destruction appearing inevitable, the Almighty has opened a pathway, as it were, through the mighty wa ters, so that even the irreligious have been led to feel, if not to exclaim: "This is the finger of God!" Observe another class of events in which the kind providence of God interposes. How many and how violent the convulsions which seize upon the elements ! and how few, comparatively, the calamities that ensue ! Storms appear to be indispensable to the purification of the atmosphere, and to the maintenance of animal and vegetable life, and they are common, both at sea and on land; yet how rarely do they involve man unavoidably in their dreadful consequences! We see the knotted oak prostrated a mass of ruins; but how often is it that man is involved? We see, too, the lightning's fiery bolt fly flaming athwart the darkened. sky, and the tall monarch of the forest receives the blow. The shivered trunk flies in atoms, and falls in dreadful confusion to the ground; but rarely does the flaming bolt fall upon the traveller's path. "These speak the dreadful God," and warn the sinner how dangerous it is to provoke his wrath. They say, in no unintelligible accents; "Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" 8.-IMPORTANCE OF THE DEITY of Christ. S. GANO. THE doctrine of the Divinity of our Lord is Scriptural, and is placed before you for your reception or rejection. Compare it with those passages from which we derive our knowledge of the true God, and upon which we build our hope of everlasting blessedness. If Jesus Christ be our all, God blessed for ever; if he possesses all the fulness of the Godhead, a rejection of him must be attended with the most awful consequences. If we reject the arm of Omnipotence, what can save us? My fellow-mortals, we stand on the brink of eternity." "A point of time, a moment's space, The sentiment I have been presenting to you, and which I have feebly supported in this place, and from this pulpit, for more than twenty-five years, is now the only ground of my own hope, and that which I wish to commend when the messenger of death shall summon my soul to an account before the only wise God my Saviour. I mention this, not as an argument for the veracity of the doctrine, for I am fully sensible that the most abominable and vile sentiments may be sanctioned by the most hoary antiquity, and adhered to with a pertinacity of enthusiasm that outbraves death; but if I may possess any claim to honesty, I express it as my settled confidence in what the Scriptures reveal, and what is intimately connected with our eternal condition. The Scriptures we must understand for ourselves. To our Master we stand or fall. An attempt to explain what is inexplicable, is absurd; but to believe what is inexplicable, is rational, and what we all do daily. You are entreated to believe in Jesus Christ, as revealed in his word. Believe in him as God manifest in the flesh, as one with and in the Father; as the eternal life which was with the Father. In such a being as this, who would not trust? Turn your eyes from all worldly objects to behold Him who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Fear not, ye humble and trembling souls! your salvation is sure. So wondrous is his power, that no part of the planetary system varies in its course; so wondrous his love, that nothing can either wander in disorder, or be wanting to complete his system of grace. Join, then, with the prophets: How great are God's signs! How mighty are his works! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. 9.--THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. J. DOWLING. WITH What inimitable beauty and skill does "The Great Teacher," who spake as never man spake, employ the parabolic mode of enlightening the ignorance, rebuking the ingratitude, or condemning the obduracy of his hearers. True, the result was not always to produce the contrition and the penitence of a David; for, sometimes, when the reason was convinced, and the conscience was compelled to make the application, the pride and obduracy of the heart were still unsubdued. Thus did it happen, that after our blessed Lord had exposed the madness and the cruelty of the Jews, and foretold their approaching fate, in the parable of the vineyard and the husbandmen, who destroyed, first the servants, and then the beloved son of their Lord;-that his auditors were compelled to self-application, and perceived the justice and felt the severity of the reproof, while they still hated the reprover. For the chief-priests and the scribes, the same hour, says the evangelist, "sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people; for they perceived he had spoken this parable against them." —Luke xx. 19; Mark xii. 1–12. It The richness and beauty, the instructiveness and variety of our Saviour's parables, is a theme too copious even to touch upon in the present discourse. is sufficient to say, that they constitute a complete and invaluable model for the study and imitation of all whose duty it is to teach and to preach the truths of that gospel which Christ himself proclaimed, in such a way that the multitudes hung upon his lips, and |