so exalted in privilege, so abundant in resources, so set on the highest pinnacle of civilization; and especially to those among them, in whom life and energy are germinant, who have all the world before them, and their path in life to choose. Let such seriously reflect how bound up with the very vitals of the true faith is the notion of its diffusion,-how a sevenfold disparted flame represents Him, who yet in the integrity of His Divine Essence is but One,-how therefore they have totally misread Christianity, have misapprehended its rudimentary principles, have probably never received it at all except in speculation, who can acquiesce in an easy, self-indulgent life, without effort in any single shape for its propagation. Let them remember that the one great business of the Era is the dissemination of God's Truth, that, in one form or other, whether by alms and prayers only, or by personal exertions, this business must be carried on by all professing the Name of Christ,--that all other works in which man is engaged, are only valuable as subordinate agencies, helping more or less remotely towards the end, carrying on that system of things which will result in the establishment of God's Kingdom,—and that to have as one's own peculiar work the great work of the Era is no slight privilege, and will claim, through grace, no insignificant reward. And then, if their sphere of service has not been already determined by circumstances over which they have had no control, let them consider thoughtfully,-in the spirit of earnest prayer for the guidance of Divine Providence and Grace, and of deference also to the judgment of those whom they are most bound to honour upon earth, whether God may not be summoning them to supply the lack of England's service in connexion with her foreign de

pendencies, and perhaps to go forth to heathen man with the Revelation of the Triune Jehovah.

Youth of England, up and be stirring in some quarter (whether domestic or foreign) of the vast harvest-field. If indeed the character of our race be, as is often asserted, averse to speculation, and inclined rather to prompt and vigorous action,-let this constitutional tendency be manifested by our sons, in the noblest of all forms which such a tendency can assume. Let them spend the splendid resources of an Academical education, the learning which they have here imbibed, the habits of analysis and patient investigation which they have here acquired, and above all, the sentiments of freedom, dignity, and veneration, which have been nursed under these walls, and cling to them tenaciously as the ivy to the oak,-I say, let them spend these things, or rather let them spend themselves—all that they are, and all that they have, -in the dissemination of the Truth of God. And it shall come up for a memorial before Him, that the indomitable energy of the English nation has been devoted, not simply to the carrying out of selfish policies and the aggrandizement of our name and empire, but to the achievement of those three sublimest ends, which we are taught to place in the forefront of our petitions, the hallowing of His Name the coming of His kingdom-and the doing of His will upon earth, as it is done in Heaven.

SERMON XVI.

THE DISPENSATIONS.

Preached before the University of Oxford, on Advent Sunday,

1853.

“Little children, it is the last time.”—1 JOHN ii. 18.

THE Apostolic writers speak, more than once, of their own times, in terms equivalent to these. With St. John, those times are the last hour (ẻσxárŋ wpa) of the world's day. St. Paul expresses the same thought, but draws the expression from a different and larger period of time, when he says that "in these last days God hath spoken unto us by His Son;" and St. Peter, quoting from the book of Joel, changes the μerà Tavra of the Septuagint, into the more definite ev ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις, and so designates the period of the outpouring of the Spirit as the last days. The former Apostle expresses the same truth to his Corinthian converts in yet another form, when he says, of the events which befell Israel, that "they are written for our admonition," (the admonition of the Church then existing,) "upon whom the ends of the world are come." And we find the figurative speech of Types in wonderful harmony with these more explicit statements. The Paschal Lamb was to be killed between the two evenings, i. e. after the sun had begun to decline, and before he finally sank. And the Lamb, as we know,

was a figure of Him, who "once in the end of the world appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," -"who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for us."

But it may be asked, How could those days of primitive Christianity be called the last days, or the last hour of the world's existence, inasmuch as since those days eighteen hundred years have elapsed, and still the world's history has not reached its close?

The answer is obvious. No new dispensation has been established since God sent His Son into the world to die for sins, and, in consequence of His Son's exaltation, poured down from heaven the gifts of His Spirit. The whole period lying between the first Advent and the present year of Grace is but one Economy; and it is destined to be the last œconomy, under which man is to be tried. Since the Apostles and Fathers of our faith sunk into their graves, there has been no new revelation,- no further miracle has broken rudely in upon the established order of Nature, no fresh voice has broken the dead silence which God has maintained, no fresh light has pierced the cloud in which He has enwrapped Himself. If it were so,—if the monstrous pretensions of Mahometanism, Mormonism, or similar impostures, could be substantiated, then, even granting the Christian Revelation to be true, the days in which the Apostles wrote could not in any sense have been designated as the last days,—not being days which had witnessed God's ultimate dealings with man, in the way of probation.

These reflections lead the mind to the whole divine scheme of dealing with mankind, as it has been developed from the beginning, and the ultimate issue which, from

the notices both of Revelation and experience, that scheme may be expected to have.

May God bless us with a spirit of insight into His designs, and enable us to discern and apply their practical bearings!

But first, for the sake of my younger hearers, I must disentangle the idea contained in the word Dispensation, and endeavour to free it from all obscurity. What is

a dispensation-Οικονομία ? Οικονόμος is the administrator of a household, the lord of a family, he who (according to the beautiful etymology of the corresponding Anglo-Saxon word, hlaford - loaf-giver) dispenses to the household their portion of meat in due season. It is a certain measure, more or less, of moral light and help meted out by God, the great Householder, to His human family, for the purpose of their probation. Any and every light and help which man has from Heaven constitutes, strictly speaking, a Dispensation. Thus every single word of Inspiration,-every promise, every warning, every example, and every threatening in the whole compass of Scripture, may be regarded as a separate œconomy. For each promise, warning, example, and threatening, supplies man with a new moral stimulus, is a fresh element in the great sum total of moral influences which are brought to bear upon him, and so a fresh accession to his responsibility. Every such word of God is a new star in the firmament of Divine knowledge, by the shining beacons of which firmament man must shape his course for Eternity. Such is the definition of a Dispensation.

It seems, moreover, to be a principle of God's dealings that the light and knowledge having been once supernaturally communicated, shall thenceforth be left to radiate from its centre, to diffuse itself among man