dom; this the support of those who erected it; that was the assumption of his state; this the tender and affectionate assuaging of his church's griefs and necesssities; that was sublime and magnificent; this consoling and refreshing to the weary heart; the first inspires us with courage to form plans of missions and undertake the labour of such a cause; the second touches the feelings of those already engaged, and assures them of a friend and comforter in the stormy passages of life; the one reveals the ruler, the king, the sovereign on his mediatorial throne; the other, the gracious Saviour speaking to the heart of the believer by his grace, and giving consolation to the teacher, and inward light and holiness to those who are taught.

But we hasten to conclude by observing, How surely the ultimate triumph of Christianity is secured by all the topics we have been reviewing. The authority of our Lord stands in force still; his commission is unrepealed still; the presence of Christ with his church in executing it, remains still. All these principles are as vigorous and unimpaired now, as they were eighteen centuries since. What a dignity and confidence and hope are thus imparted to the christian cause, even under its darkest seasons! Our Master sits exalted on high. Our Master has unlimited dominion and power. Our Master knows his own purposes, and is proceeding in his own method. He allows indeed intermediate troubles to fall on his church, he exercises it with

long delays, he purifies it by adversities. But he deserts it not. He is preparing, in his own time and manner, its triumph. He is never nearer, than when to the eye of sense he seems most remote. Every thing is moving on towards the destined glorious result, when all enemies shall be put under his footstool, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of his grace, and he shall reign supreme from the rising to the setting sun.

Let us not regard then the contempt of the proud, the indifference of the unthinking, or the apprehension of the timid; our Lord and his cause have always thus been treated. The blessed, ultimate triumphs of Christianity are not less true, nor less secure. At length the end, will come, and the commission of the text be fully obeyed and accomplished that commission which comprehends, as it were, within a few brief words, the whole of Christianity-all its doctrines, all its precepts, all its discipline, all its consolation, all its authority, all its propagation, all its grace, all its triumph.

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SERMON XX.

ISAIAH lxi. 11.

For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the

nations.

HAVING reviewed at some length the commission given by our Saviour for the universal propagation of the gospel, we proceed, in the next place, to consider, from the words of the prophet which we have read, the gradual conversion of mankind, as illustrated by the process of vegetation.

To examine more closely the force of the illustration, we shall institute a comparison between spiritual and natural vegetation in three respects— as to the seed sown; as to the extent of ground brought under cultivation; and as to the manner in which the fruitfulness is produced.

I. The seed sown in this spiritual cultivation is here described by the words "righteousness and praise." This is the seed of the kingdom. This is the doctrine which the sower goes forth into "the wilderness and solitary place" to sow. "The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth," having first been carefully sown, "before all the nations."

The terms denote, as is usual in this prophet, the doctrine of Messiah's kingdom; the main blessings of the gospel; God's method of justifying man through the merits and obedience of Messiah, which is " righteousness;" and the returns of gratitude and holy obedience, which constitute our praise" for the gift.

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The word "righteousness" is frequently used in this enlarged and prophetical sense. Thus in the verse before the text, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord," saith the Church, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness;" where the one term is evidently equivalent to the other; righteousness is no other than the salvation of Messiah. The like explication occurs in the forty-fifth chapter, "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring forth together;" and yet more expressly in the close of the same chapter, because the word

is more directly applied to applied to man's justification, "Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength; in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory."

In fact, this is no other than that great blessing of the free remission of sins and acceptance before God as righteous, which is the peculiar glory of the gospel. And therefore the great apostle of the Gentiles, taking up the language of our prophet, employs and further explains the very same term; "The righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is unto all and upon all them that believe;" where the instrumental cause of justification is distinctly stated to be faith in Jesus Christ, that is, the humble reliance of the penitent sinner on the promises of God in Christ Jesus for pardon, and acceptance before him as righteous. Thus, he is justified by faith and has peace with God;" being "justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;" and "God being just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus;" "for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be mad the righteousness of God in him."

Here then we begin. This is the doctrine which we scatter as the good seed. No fruit of holiness and salvation can spring from any other. The gospel comes and addresses man as a sinner; and then proposes to him God's wonderful method of forgiveness in the righteousness of his only-begotten Son. The guilt and demerit of man must first be