Lord," how different would be the character of our feeling-how great the ardor of our love! Was that martyr extravagant when he said, "I fear nothing but sin ;" and, on being threatened with speedy death, replied, "I shall only get to heaven the sooner?" Is that convert extravagant, whose heart is elated with heavenly joy while singing,

"Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow thee."

Or was that missionary an enthusiast who lifted a tearful eye to the throne, and struggled with emotion while avowing

"Jesus, at thy command I launch into the deep,

And leave my native land where sin lulls all to sleep."

Or that Christian mother, who, no longer feeling it safe to trust her children amid the horrors of heathenism, took them by the hand on the vessel's deck, to intrust them to the care of a female friend who was about returning home to die, and said with a convulsed heart and streaming eyes, yet with an unflinching purpose, "Jesus, Master, I do this for thee?"

Was the apostle beside himself when, in ten successive verses, he repeats the name and title of the Lord Jesus Christ, chiming it in his ear like delicious music? (1 Cor. i; Eph. i.) Did he estimate Christ too highly, whose selected motto was, "none but Christ ?" Or Whitefield, the device on whose seal was a heart with wings? Or he who never heard the name of Jesus without perceptible emotion? Or that dying saint, who exclaimed, smiling, "sweet Jesus," and fell asleep? Or Baxter, who, when asked on his death-bed, how he felt, replied, "almost well?" Or that humble minister of Christ, whom I well remember, who was asked by his weeping wife, when sinking in the stupor of dying, and far gone, almost out of sight, amid the gloom of the dark valley, "Do you know me?" and responded "No." And when inquired of " whether he knew Jesus Christ?" replied with alacrity, "O yes, I have known him long; he is my best friend; he is here now ?" Or that female martyr who said, "I can't argue for Christ, but I can die for him?" Or have you forgotten the scene on the parting wreck of the steamer Home, and the sublime declaration of that Christian pastor to his wife, in momentary expectation of being engulfed, "he that relies on Jesus can trust him amid the raging of the seas?" And if we may compound earthly and heavenly things, why is the name of Washington breathed in reverence by the teeming millions of a mighty continent? You will point me to deliverances accomplished, the institutions he founded, and say, "Look around you, and you have the answer." We would not break the spell. But has the founder of a kingdom that can not be moved, the author of eternal salvation, no claims? Does he deserve

less, who took on him the form of a servant-trod the wine-press alone, and went forward in that dark and gloomy hour when forsaken of his God? Jesus, thou friend of sinners! deliverer from wrath! great Captain of salvation! "shall we ever live at this poor dying rate?" "Draw us, and we will run after thee." O the sweet wonders of his cross!

"O take my all, this worthless heart,

And make it wholly thine

Here, Lord, I give myself away,

'Tis all that I can do."

"None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; so that, whether living or dying, we are the Lord's."

3. The tremendous danger of the impenitent. "Where will you appear; to whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory?" The absolute certainty of the gospel, next to its intrinsic grandeur, is the secret of its joys and terrors. "O, sir," said a dying, trembling saint, whose mind became suddenly darkened, almost in the agonies of dying, to John Newton, as she started up and seized his hand, convulsed at the thought that possibly she might be depending on a fable, "Are you sure that you are right ?" "My soul in thy soul's stead," was the solemn, cheering reply, "if there is unfaithfulness with God." "You say true;" after a pause, during which the cloud passed away, she rejoined, "I know I am right. I feel that my hope is fixed on the Rock of Ages, yet, if you could see with my eyes, you would not wonder at my question." Sinner! are you sure that you are right and safe? that happiness here and hereafter is consequent upon your course? Can you press with confidence and desire against the door that divides between time and eternity, and cry, "Lord, how long?" Can you with joy feel disease unloosing, and death at last lifting the heavy obstructing bar, and, as you hear the summons, say, "It is the voice of my beloved," and feel a delightful glow at your heart, and exclaim, as I have heard a dying relative, "happy! happy!" and then rehearse to its close, with a voice whose strength and clearness were in strong and impressive contrast with her wasted form,

"The hour of my departure's come;
I hear the voice that calls me home;
Now, O my God, let trouble cease,
Now let thy servant die in peace."

You know you can not; and if you can not," is your rock as our rock ?" Is it safe and wise to cling to a parting wreck, and refuse the ark? O the fearfulness of falling into the hands of the living God! If there was another plank to which you might possibly cling, after making

shipwreck of the ark, we would not be so importunate; but there is not, -"there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." You are a starving beggar, come to the last door: and if now you turn away, you must perish! If a man reject the very Saviour, who will entreat for him? "I will have nothing to do," said Luther, "with an absolute God." Devils have, and they are reserved under chains of darkness. Sinners must, because they choose to, and will not have a God who is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. The Lord save me from the guilt of healing your wounds slightly! If I do not plant your path with obstructing mountains, and your pillow with thorns, it will be only because I can not. But though Christ has been despised and rejected hitherto, it need not continue so always. Shall it continue? Shall not the Great Shepherd this morning lay some lost sheep on his shoulder, and bear it to his fold rejoicing? Shall not some new-born conviction, some faint effort of penitence and faith, springing from this occasion, prove the first-fruits of a joyful harvest here, where God's ministers have so long, and with so many tears, sown the precious seed? Hear me then, as a dying man, whose hold on life is feeble, and whose voice must soon cease to sound the gospel trumpet. The fashion of the world is passing away. Long before the "end of all things" we individually will have been silently called away. We shall ere long be principals in the sad, slow, moving procession, going forth from yon avenue to the grave-yard. The dust will be our resting-place.

"Thy flesh, perhaps thy chiefest care,

Shall crawling worms consume;
But ah, destruction stops not here-
Sin kills beyond the tomb !"

Let not the glare of the world, the hope of future repentance, the buoyancy of youth or health, beguile you of the persuasion that there is a reward for the righteous, and that it shall be well with him, but ill with the wicked.

I close with two summary mementoes. Reject Christ-live and die the enemies of his cross-and your dying hours will be disturbed by recol lections of Christ. Or, what is worse, yours will be the deceitful calm of a seared conscience, and the surprise of being undone for eternity. Believe on him, and yours will be a joyful experience. "Them that honor me I will honor." "No man has left father or mother, house or lands, for my sake, but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting." He will accept your services, increase your knowledge, sanctify your praises, and after keeping you from the corruptions of the world, will "present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Amen.

DISCOURSE XXXII.

CHARLES PETTIT MOILVAINE, D.D.

BISHOP MCILVAINE was born in Burlington, New Jersey, January 18th, of the last year of the eighteenth century. His parents-Joseph and Maria McIlvaine— were of families descended from early colonists, and residents in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; on the mother's side from England, and the father's from Scotland. His mother, whose maiden name was Reed, was daughter of Brown Reed, Esq., whose brother, Joseph (General Reed of the Revolution), was Washington's adjutant-general and confidential friend, and President of Pennsylvania. Joseph McIlvaine was a distinguished lawyer of New Jersey, and at the time of his death represented the State in the Senate of the United States. The son was converted in 1815, at Princeton College, while in the junior class; and having been educated in the Episcopal church of Burlington (Rev. Dr. Wharton, rector) from childhood, he became a communicant of that church. There was an extensive work of grace in the college at that time (Dr. Green, President). His two intimate friends then, and ever since, the present Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, and Bishop Johns, of Virginia, were turned to God about the same time. He graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1816, and was ordained deacon on the 4th of July, 1820, in Philadelphia, by Bishop White, of Pennsylvania; and priest by Bishop Kemp, of Maryland, in 1823. In the summer of 1820 he took charge of Christ's church, Georgetown, D. C.

At the opening of the year 1825, at the request of Hon. J. C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, Mr. McIlvaine was induced to accept the appointment of Chaplain and Professor of Ethics, etc., at the United States Military Academy at West Point. While there, God was pleased to bless the word, and a powerful work of grace was manifest in the institution. Many were converted, and many received impressions which afterward matured to their conversion. Several have since been faithful ministers of the gospel, who then, as cadets, were turned to the Lord. The present Bishop Polk, of Louisiana, was one of them, and the first, in point of time. He resigned at West Point, December, 1827, and became rector of St. Ann's church, Brooklyn, New York. In 1831, he was appointed Professor of the Evidences of Revealed Religion and Sacred Antiquities in the University of the city of New York, and delivered a course of lectures, afterward published. In 1832 he was consecrated, in New York, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, in the diocese of Ohio, where he has since officiated, with great acceptance and growing useful

ness.

Bishop McIlvaine is the author of several valuable works; among which his "Evidences of Christianity in their External and Historical Division," 8vo., reprinted, in

several editions, in England and Scotland; "Oxford Divinity compared with that of the Romish and Anglican Churches," 8vo., reprinted in London; "The Truth and the Life," a course of sermons, 8vo., also reprinted in London; "The Sinner's Justification before God-a Scriptural Treatise," 18mo., reprinted in London; "The Holy Catholic Church," 18mo., London also; "No Priest, No Altar, No Sacrifice but Christ," London also; with several smaller works, besides episcopal charges, reviews in periodicals, magazines, etc.

The personnel of the Bishop is quite prepossessing. He is about six feet high, of a ruddy, healthful complexion, and a portly, commanding carriage. His figure in the pulpit is very fine. He is distinguished for the soundness and clearness of his evangelical views, and for the expository character of his preaching. That for which, as a preacher, he is most eminent, is his power of illustrating Scripture by Scripture. And his mode of doing this shows at once the fullness and the accuracy of his knowledge of Scripture, and the transparent simplicity of his conception. He preaches as well extempore as from manuscript, and at times he is quite eloquent. His ministrations, however, have what is worth far more than eloquence, as commonly understood they are searching and edifying, enlightening the mind, speaking to the conscience, and stirring the sensibilities. In all his preaching he aims to lay deep and broad the foundations of Christian character, in strong, clear views of man's sinfulness and need, and Christ's fullness and freeness as a Saviour.

Some of his finest qualities as a preacher are observable in the following excellent discourse, which, by the Bishop's kindness, we are able to lay before the readers of this work.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

"The Lord is risen indeed."-LUKE, xxiv. 34.

THESE are words of conviction, and of joy. To appreciate them, as uttered by the disciples of Christ, when they became assured that he had risen from the dead, we must enter into their circumstances. Well persuaded that, in Jesus, they beheld him to whom all the prophets had witnessed, who was to sit on the throne of David, and to establish his kingdom over all people, they had forsaken all to follow him, and had embarked all their hopes on his claims. Already had they learned, by painful experience, that it was through much tribulation they were to share in his kingdom; but such trials had not shaken their faith. Aceustomed to behold him despised, persecuted, and rejected of men, their confidence was continually sustained, as they heard him speak "as never man spake," and with an authority that controlled the sea and raised the dead. But now, deep tribulation, such as they had not known before, had overtaken them. What darkness had come upon their faith! He, who was once so mighty to give deliverance to the captive, had himself been taken captive and bound to the cross. He, who with a word raised the dead, had been violently, wickedly, put to an ignominious