It has a distinct work to do in him. He has a separate destiny to settle. His own trembling heart has to say if it will war against God. Choose you this day whom ye will serve." Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him." God says to the individual, Behold, I am near you, 66 even in your heart." "Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."* Gospel make its distinct issue with each soul.

to each, and has his negotiations with him as the universe beside were annihilated.

Thus does the

Christ comes truly as if all

8. The Gospel adapts itself to the "poor"-to the common mind, in its manifestation of testimony. It puts its law in the mind, and writes it on the heart of its disciples. The witness of the Spirit is precisely of this kind of popular testimony, if I may so call it. God's Spirit bears witness with .man's. God speaks directly. Inferences, books, good logic, the pastor's opinion, are all superseded, in this sort of proof, by a direct divine manifestation; and I can not see what less would do. It would be a sad thing to be left to uncertain deductions. The heart would sorrow and break, if it might not hear its absolution from God.

The other kind of proof, inferential and experimental, recognizes the same great principle. When we appeal to the fruits of the Spirit, "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," we appeal to the people-to their consciousOf whom shall I inquire if I have peace and joy? Of the pastor? the presbytery? the Church? my neighbor if I love God with all my heart? mony do I want to convince me that I believe is in me the hope of glory?

ness.

Shall I ask Whose testithat Christ

In the progress of religion, each man is to "deny himself,

#

Josh., xxiv., 15; Rev., iii., 20; Isaiah, i., 18.

"If

and take up his own cross, and follow Christ;" and in the great day, every man shall be judged according to his works. thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."*

Inferences.

1. The Gospel is preached to the poor-to the masses. It is made for them-it suits them. Is it not for the rich-for the cultivated the intellectual? Not as such. They must become as the poor-as little children-as fools. They must come down to the common platform. They must be saved just like so many plowmen or common day-laborers. They must feel themselves sinners-must repent-trust in Christ, like beggars-like publicans. Sometimes we hear men prate about "preaching that may do for common people, while it is good for nothing for the refined and the educated." This is a damning heresy. It is a ruinous delusion. All breathe the All are of one blood. All die. There is precisely and that is the Gospel that the poor have The poor are the favored ones. They are not called up. The great are called down. They may dress, and feed, and ride, and live in ways of their own choosing; but as to getting to heaven, there is only God's waythe way of the poor. They may fare sumptuously every day, but there is only one sort of Manna.

same air.
one Gospel for all;
preached to them.

2. That is the Gospel which is effectually preached to the poor, and which converts the people. The result shows it. It has demonstration in its fruits. A great many things held and preached may be above the common mind-intricaterequiring logic and grasp of intellect to embrace them. They may be true-important, but they are not the Gospel-not its vital, central truths. Take them away, and the Gospel will remain. Add them, and you do not help the Gospel. That is preached to the poor. Common people can under

stand it. This is a good test. All the rest is, at least, not essential.

3. There are hot controversies about the true Church. What constitutes it—what is essential to it-what vitiates it? These may be important questions, but there are more important ones. It may be that there can not be a Church without a bishop, or that there can. There can be none without a Gospel, and a Gospel for the poor. Does a Church preach the Gospel to the poor-preach it effectively? Does it convert and sanctify the people? Are its preaching, its forms, its doctrines adapted specially to these results? If not, we need not take the trouble of asking any more questions about it. It has missed the main matter. It does not do what Jesus did what the apostles did. Is there a Church —a ministry—that converts, reforms, sanctifies the people? Do the poor really learn to love Christ? Do they live purely and die happy? I hope that Church conforms to the New Testament in its government and forms as far as may be. I trust it has nothing anti-Republican, or schismatic, or disorderly in its fundamental principles and policy. I wish its ministers may be men of the best training, and eloquent. I hope they worship in goodly temples, and all that; but I can not think or talk gravely about these matters on the Sabbath. They preach a saving Gospel to the poor, and that is enough. It is an apostolic Church. Christ is the corner-stone. The main thing is secured, thank God.

4. Our subject gives a test for all questions, doctrines, and usages. "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." Such was the language of the Savior, when he had declared the proofs of his Messiahship. Such is now the language of the Gospel, as it rests its claims on its genius and fruits. Men stumble at religion, by looking too high or too deep for it. They will not see its divinity in its adaptation to godlike ends-its care for the race-its condescension to our low estate. Its glory, its majesty, are moral and

spiritual. It cometh not with observation, but is mighty, through God, to convert the soul. It is preached to the poor. It is revealed unto babes.

Its Manna falls on all the

plain, about the tents of the people.

One fountain only has

Yet it is free to all.

been opened. That is for the poor. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: buy wine and milk without money, and without price." And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." ."*

XXVI.

THE LAW OF MUTUAL DEPENDENCE.

The whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.-EPH., iv., 16.

THIS text admonishes us of the manifold instruments and agencies on whose concurrence and harmonious action the prosperity and the perfection of the Christian Church depend. It likens the Church to that most complicated, admirable machine, the human body, which only produces its proper results, the preservation and comfort of human life, by the healthful tone and right performance of its various powers and functions. We live, and are at ease, in virtue of the sound condition and regular operation of all the multitude of parts and organs which compose our corporeal frame. Should the heart refuse to circulate the blood, and to diffuse through all the various channels of intercommunication with the members of the body its life-sustaining pulses, death ensues in a moment. A similar result follows the non-performance of their appropriate functions by the brain, the lungs, the stomach, and other digestive organs. tie that connects the finger with this store-house of life, the

Let but the delicate

* Isaiah, lv., 1; Rev., xxii., 17.

brain, be severed, and it becomes paralyzed-dead to all the purposes of ministering to our wants and happiness. It were little that the eye should discern objects of utility or beauty at a distance, if the legs refused to bear us to them, or the hands to fashion them into forms adapted to our wants. It were useless that the ear should be open to notes of alarm or warning, if there were no strong arm to resist the danger— no fleetness of foot to escape it. The food which is conveyed to the mouth by the proper agent would only be so much poison, if the power to masticate or digest it were wanting or paralyzed.

The same law of mutual dependence reigns in improved, civilized society-in man, social as well as individual. The body politic and social must prosper, or its members suffer. The individual, too, can not suffer, without inflicting, by so much, an injury on the community. The ruler and the subject-the capitalist and the operative-the merchant-the farmer-the scholar and the artisan-the manufacturer and the sailor, perform functions alike indispensable to the great result aimed at or desired by all communities. They are mutually dependent-are indissolubly united in interest, by ties not always visible, but yet real and essential to the wellbeing of all parties. If the port of this great city were blocked up by an enemy, or closed by an embargo, the paralyzing effects would be felt, not only in every inland town and village in the land, but in the log cabins of Wisconsin and Arkansas. The derangement of the currency throws journeymen of all trades out of employment, and withdraws their children from school. An early frost in Louisiana, or a short wheat crop in Ohio, compels tens of thousands in England and France to eat brown bread, or no bread at all. A single man, deemed worthless, perhaps, by his fellows, is, in God's providential plan of dependencies and harmonies, the turning-point of immense benefactions to the world. The statesman, who devises a good law-the scientific man, who