of christian worship, when another grand phase of human progression burst upon the world from the sound and sanctified intellect of the immortal monk of Erfurt. Since the days of the Reformation, emancipated mind has been advancing to a higher level, and sweeping a broader horizon.

As in the physical, so in the psychological world, the most stupendous results follow from the play of invisible and intangible elements. This is emphatically the age of ethereal and impalpable forces, and christianity is but harmonizing in her grand, world-wide movements, with the significant and subordinate powers of nature, when her simple, elemental FAITH-the radical grace of the lovely train-is spreading its electric impulses far and wide, and stirring the masses of the moral world, over the length and breadth of a continent.

Such is the vast revival influence which has signalized this year of physical, mental, and moral wonders,-left its hallowing impress upon the public heart, and imposed its salutary restraints upon public morals throughout the States of this Union.

Christian faith, because invisible and incomprehensible in its modes of action, and incapable of demonstration by the microscope, the scalpel, or the crucible, has long been the subject of libertine taunt and skeptical inuendo, and has often provoked the fires of pagan persecution, and even the tortures of inquisitorial vengeance. But the very violence and oppression of the past have but served to unlumber her celestial artillery and unmask her strongest batteries.

Nature's ethereal forces-the most powerful which she wieldsmanifest their boldest phenomena when temporarily restrained and held in abeyance. How quiet and harmless the escape of steam from the matron's tea-kettle. But generate and confine it in iron cylinders, and huge masses of ponderous machinery start into motion, and impetuous keels scour the pathless deep, between distant kingdoms! How silent and invisible the ascent of liberated gases in the open air. But when evolved by the heat of the earth's central fires, and pent up by its superincumbent strata, whole continents rock under its elastic recoil, volcanoes heave, and mountains spring from the bottom of the seas.

The electric fluid too, whose ubiquity, dominion, and brilliant phonomena seem but to fore-type the universality and brightness of the reign of faith,—is noiseless and unseen, until, when insulated and confined upon the floating storm-cloud, it collects its latent energies,

and leaps with blinding blaze and startling crash, through the rent and yielding air, splintering masts and firing forests in its resistless

course.

Such is the order of Heaven in the exhibitions of its spiritual power. Would you prove the inherent might and operative energies of the faith of Revelation, surround her by mountain ranges upon the right and left, intercept her onward passage by the Red sea, and press her in the rear by the countless chariots and horsemen of the Egyptian king, and then, at the signal from the Mosaic trident, the cloven wastes shall stand like walls of adamant, as she leads the exultant hosts of Israel through the yawning chasm, and the returning floods submerge the enemies of God. Or, again; let barbarian thousands assail her armed legions, when the honor of Heaven is involved, and, obedient to her powerful impulses, the sun shall stand still over the beleaguered heights of Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Ajalon, until the arrogant heathen are swept from the earth, and the sovereignty of Jehovah sublimely vindicated. Then, let no faithless fears overshadow the vision of her pledged and princely future conquests. Her fair escutcheon, emblazoned by the deeds of apostolic days, and rich with the graven memories of martyrdom, shall never be tarnished by the records of an ignominious retreat in the campaign against "principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world; against spiritual wickedness in high places." Her spirit leads the great aggressive movements of Zion in the present age, and, less and less trammeled by the sensual clogs and unmeaning ceremonies which once so seriously impeded her progress, she goes "forth, conquering and to conquer," promising a bright and blissful future to the sons of men. And even now, the hybernating and masked infidelities of the day are shocked and paralyzed by the breadth of her empire and the silent successes of her But our limits forbid us at present to trace these interesting parallelisms farther, and we desist.

arms.

Thirdly and lastly, then.

We propose briefly "to contemplate the promised results of His reign." In the lofty language of the text, "The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.'

Christianity has no secrets which shall not be revealed. It is true, her comprehensive economy is too vast to be entirely compassed by

an earthly nature, and she must await the disfranchisement and enlargement of the immortal mind, amid the sinless scenes of Heaven, to unroll the wide wonders of her plan. There alone shall be sounded the fathomless deeps of the Divine mercy, in its incomprehensible affiliation with humble manhood, and its conquering struggle amid the death groans of the crucifixion. There, too, and there alone, shall the "glory of the LORD" be displayed, in unfolding to the enraptured eyes of his saints, the wisdom and the benevolence of that mysterious Providence which guided them to their rest.

before her terrestrial mission is closed, when the broad charities of her heart shall have poured themselves out upon the whole earth, and the repentant and redeemed nations shall have tasted" the powers of the world to come,”—even then "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed" so that "all flesh shall see it together," as the grand presage to its higher exhibition in the light of eternity."

When a few more generations shall have passed away, the world shall witness the unearthly pageant of the second advent, when God's annointed comes in the clouds of heaven, attended by the retinue of the skies. Up, then, ye sons and daughters of godly sires, crowned with the light of knowledge and robed with the loveliness of virtue. Up and away upon your heavenly mission, and with the warm blood of a christian ancestry in your veins, seek to "prepare the way of the Lord," and to "make straight in the desert a highway for our God." For ye are destined to be the honored wearers of an undying faith to our waiting posterity.

The venerable and the loved who, for nearly half a century, have stood in the van of your coming hosts, shall soon have closed their humble career and have gone to the rest of their fathers. Sinking under the weight of years and of toils, but still glowing with the ardors of parental love, and kindling into rapture under the inspiring visions of the text, their longing hopes delight to linger about your footsteps, and point your young ambition to the spiritual conqueror's crown.

Upon the prowess of your right arms, then, sustained by Jeshurun's God, must rest the future honors of Zion; and with their dying blessing, they commit to your defence the unfurled banner of the cross, still proudly streaming from her blood-stained ramparts.

But suppose your fathers die. What at last is the tomb of superannuated nature but the cradle of a new life, soon to be unfolded in the

brightening evolutions of Bible prophecy, and in the maintenance of the mighty scheme of human salvation? Move fearlessly and faithfully onwards, then, ye rising thousands of the young, to greet the glorious future. The high carnival of the assembling nations approaches. Let your children's children, through successive generations, swell the gorgeous procession which comes down the path of ages to hail the millennial grandeur of God-the Messiah's reign; gaze with the redeemed and purified millions upon the "glory of the Lord," revealed in earth and air and ocean, and join with the sacramental host in the long, loud acclaim which rolls with the tremors of an earthquake through the arches of the echoing skies, "Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"

MAN SUBJECTED TO THE LAW OF SUFFERING.

BY WHITEFOORD SMITH, D. D.,

OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."-Hebrews v, 7, 8, 9.

Every one who has been observant of what takes place around and within him, has, no doubt, often been perplexed by what he has witnessed and experienced. Perhaps in reference to no class of subjects is this more common than to that which relates to the sufferings of men. The exclamation is frequently heard, "What a mysterious dispensation of Providence!" If any one is overtaken by adversity, and reduced from a comfortable estate to comparative poverty, it is regarded by many as something strange; though such occurrences are by no means rare. If one is found laboring under a chronic disease, or some bodily infirmity, or if a sudden death is announced, it is often remarked, "How extraordinary!" If a husband and father is taken away from a dependent family, and a wife is made a widow and her children fatherless, or if a statesman dies in the midst of

some important public business, or in some critical period of his country's history, it is declared to be a most mysterious dispensation. It might thus be supposed that such events but very seldom occurred, and that their infrequency made them startle us, and that they were utterly inexplicable upon any principles of reason or religion. But if we will take the trouble to remember and to reflect, we shall find neither the one or the other of these suppositions to be correct. If men were left entirely to the light of their own unassisted reason, they might be at a loss to discover the design of many of the evils which they witness in the world, and of many of which themselves are the subjects. But it has pleased God in his infinite goodness, to reveal to us his will, and much of the darkness and mystery which shrouded his plans of operation has been removed, and they have been made easy of comprehension by the light of revelation. The patient and prayerful study of this subject will often convince us that our opinions have been erroneous and our judgments sadly at fault in the views we have taken and the conclusions we have formed touching the divine administration. Despite all the evils which we see around us in the world, despite all the pains and sorrows we have felt ourselves, the pious inquirer will join in the declaration of Scripture— "The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works."

The text suggests two propositions:

1. That in our present condition the law of suffering is a great universal law of our nature.

2. That the discipline of suffering is necessary to perfect us in all holy obedience to the will of God.

I. In our present condition the law of suffering is a great universal law of our nature. The history of the world is the record of this truth. The consciousness of every man is its inward attestation. From the day of the first transgression until now the family of man has become subject to this law. The first utterances of humanity are cries of suffering-its last expressions are groans and sighs. No favored spot of earth has been found, no matter how salubrious its climate-how grand and gorgeous its scenery-how clear its crystal waters-how brave and generous its people-where the wail of the sufferer is not heard. The generations of men as they successively followed each other have uttered the same lamentations over the mis.