is the custom in the royal diadems of Christian kings) the Cross and the Crown put together. If our God, who knows whereof we are made and has compassion upon our weakness, has thought it right thus constantly to enforce our several duties, by reminding us of the greatness of the rewards proposed for us upon our submission to his precepts, it is surely intended that we should weigh and consider the value of those future rewards, and keep them in remembrance, as a due balance and counterpoise to set against the immediate temptations of sight and sense. And this is most certain, that no man's practice can rise higher than his hopes. It is seen in aqueducts that no pipe or conduit can force the current of the water higher than the level. of the spring-head, whence the water first descends; and in like manner it is not possible for a man who professes to himself only the rewards of this world, so to rule his life and conversation as to arrive at a better. And the reason is simply this, because, whoever makes these present enjoyments his whole object, must be reckoning them absolutely to be the best things he can have, and accordingly he looks no further, he expects no better. And if so, it is not to be imagined that he should ever obtain what he never so much as cast a thought after." For no man will ever arrive at heaven by chance.

When, therefore, we are called to take up a cross for Christ's sake, to mortify the deeds of the body, to deny ourselves, to be merciful, meek, patient, humble, chaste, and pure, let us not shrink from the call that is made upon us, but remember the great recompense of the reward, the incorruptible crown that awaits us, if found faithful and ready to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ. It is these very duties, however, that have reference to what St. Paul calls bringing the body under subjection, which are most opposed to the natural man, and to the performance of which perhaps we require, if we may so say, the greatest encouragement. Speaking the truth, justice towards offenders, or rendering to every one his due, are virtues much more frequent in the world than temperance, sobriety, and chastity, and such other virtues as have a tendency to limit the enjoyments of the animal man, and which come more properly under what the

Apostle calls "the lusts of the flesh, which war against the soul." But they do war against the soul, and therefore we must wage war against them. And it is that we may not only reach heaven, but, when admitted there, be capable of enjoying the purity and peace of heaven, that we must be temperate in all things, and put ourselves under discipline and watchful rule. This is often, no doubt, painful, irksome, and contrary to present ease and enjoyment; but for any worldly object of sufficient importance, what will not men undertake, what self-denial submit to, what patient endurance will they not practise? and "they do it to obtain a corruptible crown." And shall not we, as Christians, equal in our zeal and steadfastness these children of this world?—we, to whom is proposed an incorruptible crown? We have a sure promise of help in our task. And we shall find too that light will spring up around our onward path, and present satisfaction reward our ripening labours.

But when the task is over and the labour done, what tongue can tell, what heart conceive, those good things which God has in store for those that love him! Enduring treasures, as constrasted with the perishable and uncertain treasures of this world,—enduring treasures there, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal, where there is no canker-worm of care to corrode the heart, nor disturbance of sin to mar their joy; riches, honour, glory, peace, rest, knowledge, fellowship with the saints in Christ-communion with God,—and whatever the imagination of man can shadow forth as excellent or desirable-these are the images, under which are detailed to us such descriptions of our heavenly inheritance as may excite our desires, and animate our hopes. Shall we forego the prize? We have been entered as candidates for heaven; as baptized Christians we have been put in trust with a great mystery. Shall we forfeit our adoption? Shall we not strive for the mastery? Shall we not, at the close of our earthly career, wish to die the death of the righteous? Then let us live the life of the righteous. Be thou faithful unto death (saith the Spirit), and I will give thee a crown of life.

SERMON VIII.*

WORLDLY WISDOM.

I COR. i. 21.

For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

THERE are two facts declared by St. Paul: first, that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God; next, that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; and the latter is, in consequence of the former, to supply a want and failure in man's wisdom. For since the world, "in the wisdom of God"-that is by contemplating, and observing, and reasoning upon the wisdom and greatness of God, as the Creator, in the great works of creation everywhere visible around us—had not by wisdom, that is, by the exercise of reason and the natural powers of the mind, been able to arrive at a true knowledge of God, and the condition of man in relation to God, it therefore pleased God to take another method, and "by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

The expression here made use of by St. Paul may want some explanation; for it may seem, strange that the preaching of the Gospel should be termed, by an Apostle of Christ, the foolishness of preaching. But the force and meaning of St. Paul's language will be best understood by considering what led him to use this kind of expression. The doctrine of the Cross, and of the redemption of the world by the meritorious suffering and expiatory death

* This sermon was preached in the College Chapel, at the Convocation of Bishop's College, Lennoxville, on Wednesday, 27th June, 1855.

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of Christ, was received by the great pretenders to wisdom and reason with scorn and contempt. "The Greeks," says the Apostle, "seek after wisdom:" and "Christ crucified "-salvation through faith in him" is to the Greeks foolishness;" they considered it an absurd and vain doctrine. The pride of learning and philosophy had so taken hold of all the more civilized parts of the heathen world, that they could not submit to any method of salvation which was not according to the laws of their philosophy, and which refused to be tried by the disputes and subtleties of their schools. The Apostle declares, at the 17th verse, that" Christ sent him to "preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of words." The wisdom of the world thus set at nought, and proved incapable of bringing light to man, set itself in opposition to the Gospel, and in revenge and ridicule of its doctrine called it "the foolishness of preaching," -the absurdity of such a scheme as a revelation of wisdom from God to man. Well, says the Apostle, let it be so; yet by this foolishness, as you term it, which we preach,—this foolish message of ours,—God is purposing to save them that believe, them that will receive it as from God; for the method is of God, and not of man, and this foolishness of God is wiser than man.

You may see then what led St. Paul to use this expression, and to call the preaching of the Gospel "foolishness of preaching." The great and the learned so considered it, and in derision so called it. The Apostle therefore speaks to them according to their own language, and calls upon them, in the text, to compare their much boasted wisdom with "this foolishness of preaching,"-with this despised doctrine of the Cross of Christ, which they, the Apostles, were publishing; and to judge of them by their effects. "The world by wisdom knew not God," but this foolishness of preaching is salvation to every believer. So much for the simple meaning of the words of the text. The world was in darkness, it was at fault in its attempts to learn anything certain respecting God and a future state; therefore God is pleased to make a revelation of himself, of his will and purposes, through the instrumentality of His ministers, who were commissioned to preach this to every creature, in order that it might give light to them that sat in darkness, and be for salvation to all them that receive

the same by faith. We learn from hence, then, that the knowledge of God-the full and true knowledge of him and of the way of life-was not to be discovered by any exercise or power of human wisdom; that it has been revealed and made known by the will of God, and declared to us by the teaching or preaching of the Chris-tian Church, and that we are to receive it by faith.

As to the subject-matter of his preaching, St. Paul speaks only generally in the text, "That God was to be made known to the world by the foolishness of preaching;" but just below he says, "We preach Christ crucified;" and elsewhere he affirms that in the course of his ministry he had not shunned to declare to his hearers "the whole counsel of God." We may understand, therefore, that while "Christ crucified "—salvation in the name, and through the power, of One who had been publicly put to a shameful death-was the great foundation on which his whole preaching rested, and was the stumbling block, the rock of offence, at which both Jew and Greek set themselves in opposition; yet the Apostle would also include all the will of God, all the truths and doctrines of the Gospel, which are connected with, and derive their force and value from the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ, as amongst those matters before unknown, which were to be declared to men by means of this (so-called) "foolishness of preaching;" that "the man of God," thoroughly instructed in all the ways of godliness, might arrive, through faith, at the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul.

St. Paul here, in this chapter, clearly draws a great distinction between the certain deductions of human reason,-what we may term demonstrative truths, such as astronomical calculations and scientific researches,—and those revelations of God to man, which are to be received as pure matters of faith ;—believed, not because they are in themselves known and understood, but are known and understood, (that is, so far as man in this life is able to receive the knowledge of them,) because they are believed. In matters subjected to human reason and scientific enquiry, we wish to know first, and believe because we know and and understand. In matters of revealed truth, we must believe first, and seek for imparted, and we may add, promised light, that we may more clearly understand