sharers in common of a universal blessing. Children of the same parentage and members of the same family, should love one another. It was his sacramental command re-enacted; Jo. 13: 34, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." There can be no tie more close or tender than our common union to Christ. Ye are Christ's. There are ve knit one to another.

Children of one Father-inembers of one Head-lovers of one dying Saviour-heirs of one blessing which comprises 'all things; here, I beseech you, be not estranged one from another. Belie not by cold hearts and evil surmisings the profession of the most tender attachment which is known among inen. The same lips which grew pale and cold on the cross, utter the request, Little children, love one another.' Perhaps you have doubted of your acceptance: here is a test : "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." Corinthian disciples contended about ministers. The apostle rebukes them by reminding them, all is yours: The same argument rebukes contention about any thing else. All things are for your sakes;" being thus enriched, and having a blessing so large that as in regard to the manna every one is sure of having enough and to spare, desist from all heart-burnings and jealousies, and look to your common inheritance. "Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as brethren; be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 1 Pet. 3: 8, 9.

How unspeakably great the privilege of Christ's Church! What a favor to be brought into it! What could your souls ask more than "all things"? You are come to "Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant," and through him to "God the Judge of all." You are joined to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." Christ is yours, and all is yours. Christ has become to you all in all. You are safe; you are rich. Be firmly settled here, and you may bid the world rage. It is a blessed company. Even such portions of it as are here met are blessed. But most blessed shall it be when all the distinct communions shall be made one; when all separated assemblies shall be convened; when all successive generations of Christians shall sit down together; when we shall see them all, and hear the story of grace recounted by all, from Abel downwards, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, men of great tribulations, and men of great and marvellous pardon;

and when we shall see Him of whom we have heard so much. and believed, alas, so little !

3. Finally, Consider the peculiar and tender relation in which this Scripture shows Christ's ministers, both to Christ's people, and to Christ himself. Ye beloved but unwise and contending Corinthians, see your covenant, according to which life and death are yours, things present and future are yours. but still more specially, Paul is yours, Apollos is yours, Cephas is yours, because ye are Christ's. That is, if there be logic in Paul, Paul, Apollos and Cephas are part of Christ's inheritance and possession. Christ makes them and gives them. It is no unmeaning phrase we read, when it is said of the ascending Christ, "he gave gifts unto men," "apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers." It was no accident, as to time and season, that just as he was ascending he said, "Go ye and teach all nations." It is no empty metaphor, when he who appears in the midst of the golden candlesticks, clothed to the feet with a priestly garment, girt with a golden girdle, with eyes like flame, and voice like many waters, and a sharp two-edged sword issuing from his mouth, and whose countenance is as the sun shining in his strength; when he, at whose feet the beloved disciple falls as dead, says, "I am he who hold the seven stars in my right hand;""the seven stars are the angels of the seven churchNo, my brethren, all these things have a significancy, and show that the ministers of the gospel are yours, because they first are Christ's. "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." Paul was Paul was "free from all," yet for the sake of gaining the more, he made himself "servant unto all." Do not mistake me, as if I held that the power of the ministry is derived from the beloved people, and not from the Lord Jesus Christ, for their sakes. The body of Christ's people have the prerogative of choosing the church-officers who shall rule over them; but these officers receive all power of authority from the Lord Jesus Christ, through the orderly acts of those who are already in office. These officers are distinctly set forth in the word and recognised in our churches. They are denominated rulers, guides, governors, ensamples, pastors; and their beloved people are styled the flock. To them belong these ministers and elders, with all their gifts and graces. They are not priests; they are not, in the Christian sense prophets; they are not lords over God's heritage; but they are the voice of Christ to his people. When ordained, they are by that act made ministers of the church at large; when separated to a particular work, or translated to a particular charge, they are made ministers of that particular church. It is a so

lemn and heart-touching connexion which is then formed; one which may well draw upon the deep affections of both parties; and one which would stretch these cords even to anguish, were it not for the reflection, that the people are the minister's, the minister is the people's; the people are Christ's, the minister is Christ's; all things are his-all things are theirs all things are Christ's-all-all together are God's. Here are foreshadowings of fulfilment for that mysterious promise: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.'

SERMON DLXXXV.

BY REV. H. G. LIVINGSTON,

PASTOR OF THE THIRD REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

THE IMMORTALITY OF CHARACTER.

He that is unjust let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous let him be righteous still; and he that is holy let him be holy still." REV. xxii. 11.

THESE words were uttered in anticipation of scenes which are yet to be realized. They evidently refer to that solemn period, so often spoken of in Scripture, when Christ shall come in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and to be admired in all them that believe. They intimate, and that most clearly, that whatever then the complexion of the soul shall be, it shall continue to be forever. Beyond that day and hour there shall be no change. The separating line when drawn shall be unalterably fixed.

The Bible uniformly represents mankind as made up of two great classes. "The unjust" and "the filthy" are the representatives of one class; "the righteous" and "the holy," of the other. Our sins or our virtues may differ in their developements, and may be exercised with respect to different objects; we may not be equally sinful nor equally righteous, yet to the one or the other of these grand divisions, do we individually belong. We are either for God or we are against

him; we are gathering with him or we are scattering abroad. The particular point to which we wish at present to direct your attention, is the fact, that these different classes of individuals are destined to pass into eternity with the same character that they had on earth. However their capacities may be expanded or their circumstances changed, yet morally. they are to remain as they have been. "If the tree fall towad the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be."

We can conceive it possible that the soul might pass through some great transformation, by which its former history would be lost, and all the earlier impressions made upon it be obliterated. The doctrine has been often taught, that in the intermediate state, between death and the resurrection, the soul will undergo a purifying process; and that in this way it will become prepared for a world of everlasting holiness. Even where the truth, for which we are contending, is admitted to its full extent, yet the reasons of the fact are not always nor adequately understood. Many who believe that this life is preparatory to another, regard the connexion between the two as merely a matter of arbitrary arrangement. They do not see how in the very nature of things it must be, that our character and conduct here determine all that is to come after them. But, my hearers, religion accords with true philosophy. The reasons for the oft-repeated assertion, that as we live here, so shall we live hereafter, lie deep in the very elements of our being. The sophistries of the sceptic may delude us, and our own wicked hearts pervert our understandings, but the calm and sober investigation of truth, as discovered in the works of the Almighty, tends but to confirm and illustrate the infallible teachings of his word. If we If we may judge from what we know and what we can see, of the world around us, we have the strongest evidence for the Immortality of Character.

That we may make this apparent, we ask you, I. To consider for a moment what constitutes the character. What are the elements of the moral man? It is true, we necessarily include in the character, the qualities or dispositions with which we are originally formed, and in this sense speak of men as naturally depraved, or otherwise. Yet we commonly refer to something which is acquired; to the propensities and tastes when in a state of maturity or developement; to the fruit rather than the germ from whence it springs. We are accustomed to say, that the character is now in a state of formation; that it is now modified by the thousand agencies to which it is exposed, and that it may not for some time to come, attain a perfectly definite and invariable com

plexion. It is evident from this that we have particular reference in speaking of the character, to that condition in which the soul is, after it has passed through a period of trial, and its native faculties have been exercised and disciplined. We refer not to the gilded binding of the book, nor to the blank leaves it contains, however they may be discolored, but to the sum of the impressions made upon its pages-to the book as written over with the busy hand of Time.

Now if the soul survives the body, which we are all ready to admit, must we not reasonably infer, that it will carry with it, not merely its original elements, but also the strength and maturity which have been imparted to them by years of cultivation or indulgence? There is nothing in nature to make any other supposition even plausible. We have no analogy to warrant the opinion that the character may be stripped off from the soul as the garments are from the body. The fullgrown man may become a meagre skeleton, a mere wreck of what he formerly was in the days of his pride and vigor, but he can never again become the little child-never dwindle into infancy. His physical constitution is not susceptible of such a change. The wide branching tree may lose its verdure or be broken by the tempest, but no conceivable process can reduce it to the sapling, or compress it within the folds of the seminal germ. So the character may lose its tone, or be deprived of some of its former peculiarities, but it can never be converted into the original elements from which it has been evolved. It bears the same relation to the soul that shape or color does to matter. It is a part and property of the souland so far as we can perceive, they can never be entirely separated from each other.

We have reason to believe that impressions made upon the soul are never lost. If it were necessary we might mention many interesting facts in support of this opinion. Individuals have been known under certain circumstances, to remember things with which they had once been familiar, but which had long, long been forgotten; and yet the character is made up of the effects, which these words and thoughts and actionsthese unremembered things-have left behind them. It appears to us about as reasonable to suppose, that the soul can be separated from its faculties as from its character. We confess that when we consider the nature of character, we can see no valid way of escaping the conclusion, that he who at death is unjust, will be unjust still; and he which is filthy will be filthy still; and he that is righteous will be righteous still, and he that is holy will be holy still.