God, we would not ask, with a certain one who said unto Jesus: "Lord, are there few, that be saved?" because we feel sure that the door will be opened to all that knock, and that they who seek faithfully will be certain to find. But every one with his eyes open, must acknowledge that there are thousands who live among us, outward members of what is termed the established church, who are so for a variety of reasons, beside and except the two of faith and practise; either because their fathers have been so before them, or because those classes of the community among whom they live are so, or because it suits their general notions of respectability and decorum, and it would be strange and anomalous if they did not as others did— now these men, proceeding upon such principles as I have just described, or principles similar to these, cannot justly call themselves of the church of Christ, of the kingdom of Christ, of the flock of that shepherd who was all love and spirituality, and a contemner of the world, and a setter at nought of

ted in the same cognizance, and so known to the same church." So says bishop Pearson, and if this be the case, then it must follow, that they who do not eat of the same bread, they who do not drink of the same cup, though they be of the "hypocrites and profane," who are of the visible church, yet they are not in heart and in deed of that invisible church, which with saints, and angels, and archangels, make up the "kingdom of God."

every thing that had not the good of mankind and the glory of God as its end and its foundation; O no, so far from it, they are hinderances in the way of Christ's kingdom, they are stumbling blocks to the weak brethren, even as the scribes and pharisees were, preventing others from entering in, and not entering in themselves, -the rock of offence, not the rock of security, to the church of their Redeemer. Heartless, worldly, negligent, selfish; they cannot be called as one body with him who was all disinterested love, and unimpeached purity. They are not one with him who, whether he ate, or drank, or whatever he did, did all to the glory of God. Suppose, for an instant, that the whole legal establishment of our church were to be dissolved, would the church of Christ be dissolved? it would remain in the hearts of those faithful who had before embraced it in their doctrine, and embodied it in their practise, precisely as it had existed previously. The spiritual and vital principle of religion depends not on human law or on worldly restrictions, on general councils or verbal formularies. These things no doubt are wise and salutary institutions for the management and discipline of external things, but they have nothing to do with things internal, further than as instruments to convey them. The church instituted by man is a help and

adjunct, a means of promoting the religion of Christ; but it is not in itself the religion of Christ. No articles can create faith in man, though he may subscribe them; no creed can establish as felt truths the doctrines of Jesus Christ, though it may recite them; no canons can produce obedience of the heart, though they may define and compel obedience of the hand and of the mouth. It is not only "except a man be born of water," (the external form,) but "except a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Except he be internally and vitally regenerate, unless he have "the spirit of Christ," unless he be actuated by such principles as are in accordance with Christ's precepts, and Christ's doctrines, he "is not one of his."

Considering then the kingdom of God as I have just defined it, it is evident, that whoever, by his example, in obedience to the commands of the gospel, displays to the world his testimony of the value of the Redeemer's loveextends that kingdom of God, glorifies his name, and fulfils the great purpose of his creation, and it is as evident that he who refuses to do this, he who would abstain from those ordinances which Jesus has commanded, throws a check, puts a restraint, confines and limits the spiritual glories of that kingdom which brought salvation to man. And yet he prays,

at any rate he prays the words, " Thy kingdom come." In his own chamber, if he bows the knee in secret communing with God; in the church, if he bows the knee in joint society with the congregation of his fellow-creatures, his words are daily poured forth: Thy kingdom come." Yet, with what meaning? With what semblance of sincerity, if he be not alive, by his own example, to make known the glories of his Redeemer? to extend to others the knowledge he himself possesses; to show that the church which he professes to love, is a church "built upon a rock, and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

True, the progress of the gospel has been miraculous. We have seen it for eighteen centuries advancing from country to country, from people to people. We have seen, at the first, that the number of the names were together about one hundred and twenty;" we have seen, a short time after, that "there were added unto the church about three thousand souls;" and then, shortly after, "many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand." And so, going on from Judea to Samaria, from Samaria to the various countries of Africa and Asia, from Asia to Europe, Greece and Rome, Corinth and Athens, the shores of Gaul and of Spain; to us also has this" kingdom" come. To millions of souls after millions have the glad tidings been

preached, according to the promise; and we hope and trust that not only as a humanly constituted church, but as the church of Christ above defined, there lives in many of our hearts the true and lively faith of Christ crucified. These things we have seen, yet many a country still remains ignorant of the way of salvation; many a people, still barbarous and rude; and, not to speak of foreign nations, how many thousands throng our own streets, kept back from the kingdom of God; going on from day to day in the most obdurate recklessness and disregard of things holy, without the virtues even of a heathen, still less of a Christian; without faith, without hope, without fear, without knowledge? How is it that we send missionaries to the remotest regions of the earth, and yet have multitudes of our own people still beyond the pale of Christianity? That we profess and speak high-sounding words of our enlightenment and civilization, and yet not only the internal spirit of Christ wanting, but even the externals, churches and ministers, where the word of God may be preached, and his sacraments administered, and yet, notwithstanding we pray the words, Thy kingdom come," How is it that we cannot walk through the streets of any large town without being shocked at the obscene language and degraded habits of hordes of living beings created to the glory of God, but