faith seemed to render audible to you the voice of angels, welcoming him to a participation of their immortal joys. Well may it suffice as an antidote even to that deep sorrow which those weeds and tears betoken, to think of the living and triumphant faith, of the beneficent and honoured life, of the immortal crown, and, finally, of the grave itself as hallowed and guarded by Him who hath proclaimed Himself the Resurrection. I commend you to the Comforter and the Sanctifier-may each sorrowful emotion find a correspondent joy, and give increased elevation and purity to your whole spiritual nature.

Brethren in the ministry, I will not dissemble the embarrassment which I feel in bearing so prominent a part in these funeral services, when it would seem so much more fitting, that, if I were present at all, it should be only to join silently in the common mourning. It is enough for me to say that, in occupying this place, I am only yielding to a request from our departed friend, which, indeed, I never knew how to account for, but which my affectionate respect and veneration for him rendered impossible for me to decline. But you will allow me to forget, for the time, that I am not one of your own immediate number, and to meet you not more in the fellowship of faith than the fellowship of sorrow; for if he who has gone to his rest was your friend, so he was mine also; and you cannot render so high a testimony to his worth, or express so deeply a sense of the loss which his death has occasioned, but I can honestly and heartily respond to it. What remains, then, but that we who venerated him while living, should cherish his memory, now that he is gone; that we, who have thought it a privilege to walk in the light of his wisdom, should be forward now to learn lessons from his grave; that we, who must follow him through the dark valley so soon, should be quickened by his departure to gird ourselves for our own. May that spirit of prudence and peace, of enlightened charity, and well directed activity, of which he was so bright an example, be diffused through all your borders; and thus may this favoured region in which your lot is cast, take on a still brighter and more luxuriant spiritual hue, producing innumerable plants of righteousness, to flourish hereafter in the Paradise above.

Next to those who mourn the death of a near relative, this church and Christian society must share most deeply the sorrows of this occasion. It is honourable to you as a people, that you should have spread out your arms to receive this venerable man as your pastor, when he had already numbered so many years of active usefulness, and at a period when the almond tree has usually begun to flourish. The event has proved the wisdom of your choice; for you have thereby secured to yourselves, for nearly eleven years, the labours of one of the most eminent ministers in New England; and during this whole time, his force of intellect, his warmth of affection, his firmness of purpose, and perhaps I may say, his energy of action, have remained unabated.

Nay, I am assured, that his last labours were among his most earnest and effective; and that the greatly increased diligence and activity which he manifested, were recognized by some of his friends as a token that his work was nearly done. And more than that I understand that the windows of Heaven seemed to be opening for the pouring forth of a blessing upon you, just as the gates of Heaven were opening to allow him to pass to the reward of his labours. We trust that the blessing will not be withheld; and that his death as well as his life may be hailed as marking a bright epoch in the history of this church.

It is fitting, my friends, that you should mourn for your beloved pastor; but, let me say, your mourning will be to little purpose, unless it include a devout recognition of God's providence in his removal; a grateful sense of his goodness in continuing him to you so long; a solemn recollection of the instructions, counsels, and prayers you have received from his lips; and an earnest desire, an abiding resolution, to establish permanently upon yourselves and your children the benefits of his ministry. Let me commend to your frequent and careful perusal, the excellent discourse delivered on the tenth anniversary of his ministry among you, which has lately, I doubt not, found a place in most of your dwellings. Here you have your own history as a people, with the instruction it suggests, faithfully exhibited by his pen. Here you have the teachings of his wisdom, after his wisdom had been matured by the observation and experience of a long life. Here you have the warm breathings of a spirit that knew no higher joy than that of seeing you walk in the truth. Here you have his last utterances through the press-they were worthy to be his last; and had he known they were to be such, I cannot see how he could have rendered them more appropriate or impressive. I say then, preserve the remembrance of all his evangelical labours, so far as you can; especially keep sacred this last legacy, and let it not be your fault, if it does not descend to bless your children's children.

I cannot close this discourse without reminding you of the relations which this occasion sustains, not only to the past, but to the future; without directing your thoughts backward to the ministry that has now come to a close, and forward to the dread tribunal at which you must render an account of it. The prophet, the prudent, the ancient, has been among you-have his labours helped to form your characters for Heaven? Have the truths which he has dispensed been welcomed by you in their sanctifying and quickening power? Have you honoured him as God's messenger, and encouraged him to be faithful by the alacrity with which you have received his ministrations? If so, then ye may well afford to rejoice in the review of his ministryto rejoice in the anticipation of its results. But have ye, on the other hand, treated with contempt the message he has brought to you, and beat back the sword of the Spirit, when he has aimed

it at your conscience and heart? Have you listened without emotion to his carnest pleadings for your salvation? Have you kept your eye and your heart still fixed on the earth, when he has been doing his utmost to bring you within the influence of the powers of the world to come? Have you sent him away to his closet to cry out in the bitterness of his spirit-" Who hath believed our report ?" Are any of you examples this day of the hardening influence of abused privileges? Are there some among you even of silvered locks and tottering footsteps, whose spirits have received no upward tendency, but are drawn by a fearful attraction towards the world below? I warn you, every one, that though you may seem to have done with this ministry, you will hear from it again-you will be obliged to face it, with all its array of precious privileges and solemn and hallowed associations, another day. Will ye not then heed the message of warning that comes from your pastor's coffin, though ye have so perseveringly refused to listen to that which came from his lips. If not, then believe me, as there is truth in God, the grave of that prophet, that prudent, that ancient, however far away,* shall be a witness against you; and hereafter its tenant shall awake to render a still more decisive and appalling testimony. God grant that when that voice, now hushed in death, shall break upon your ear again, it may be not to justify the sentence of your condemnation, but to hail you as fellow heirs to the glories of immortality.

SERMON DCXIX.

BY REV. WILLARD M. HARDING,

SOUTH WEYMOUTH, MASS.

SALVATION BY GRACE.

"By grace are ye saved."-EPH. ii. 8.

NOTHING can be of deeper interest and more solemn concern to all men, than to know, and faithfully to use the means by which they can be saved from sin and its consequences. Many in all ages have felt this to be true, and have devised and adopted various methods to secure their salvation. Gifts, penances, tortures, and "works of righteousness" in endless catalogue, have been put in requisition to gain eternal life. By such expedients has human wisdom made known its folly. But the wisdom of

*His remains were taken for burial to Middlebury, Vermont.

God has set forth in the Gospel a far different method of salvation, and has caused it to be proclaimed in various forms of ex pression, as the great, the fundamental doctrine of the Gospel, that salvation is by grace.

The text is a brief expression, but more comprehensive in its signification than any others relating to this subject found in the Scriptures. It seems to have been selected as including, and as best fitted to express, all that is done for the redeemed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The word grace is employed in the Scriptures in several different senses. Hence, an abuse or a misapprehension of its real import in certain passages, has given birth to many erroneous opinions, and even to dangerous heresies, in regard to sin and the soul's salvation. Among the various meanings of this term, as employed by the sacred writers, are, piety, or holiness of heart and life," Grow in grace; divine and spiritual influence, to sanctify, guide, and strengthen,-"My grace is sufficient for thee;" salvation through the atonement of Christ,-" Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," "Ye are fallen from grace," that is, Ye have departed from seeking salvation under an economy of grace, and through the atonement of Christ, and have gone back to seek justification by works of law.

In the text the word grace, as already intimated, seems to be employed in a sense inclusive of most others in the Scriptures, and one that cuts off all self-reliance from the Christian, and constrains him to say, at all times, and in all circumstances of his being, "By the grace of God I am what I am."

Salvation, the deliverance of the human soul from the power, the degradation, and the peril of sin, and its introduction into the purity and fellowship of Heaven, is, in its every aspect, and its every step, a work of grace. This is the doctrine of the text, and should be admitted on the simple affirmation of the inspired writer. That affirmation, however, does not constitute the truth of the doctrine. The evidence of its truth consist, among other things, in the delay of merited punishment, the provisions of the atonement, and the aids of the Holy Spirit, which the transgressor is permitted to experience.

A brief consideration of these several topics will be sufficient to show, that for the best of reasons has it been proclaimed to sinful and perishing men, that SALVATION IS BY GRACE.

I. The delay of merited punishment.

If the demands of the law are within his capacities for obedience, the transgressor deserves the immediate infliction of its penalty, when violated. A reprieve, therefore, even for a short period, granted to a criminal under sentence of death, would afford evidence of favour or grace in the magistrate who should thus stay the hand of justice. Still further evidence of grace

would be furnished, should the criminal be permitted to make an atonement that could be consistently accepted instead of his execution, and, in the meantime, enjoy the comforts and the luxuries of life.

All this is true in respect to apostate and guilty man. Embowered in his primeval Paradise, he possessed, in rich profusion, all the requisites of unmingled happiness. Endowed with powers adequate to meet all the requirements of the law under which he was placed; promised, as the reward of his continued obedience, all the means of happiness necessary to satisfy his constantly enlarging capacities for enjoyment; and forewarned, also, of the consequences which would follow his disobedience, when he failed in the slightest degree to keep the whole law, he could enter no "plea in arrest of judgment." His Maker's justice would have been unsullied, and the principles of eternal equity would have encircled his throne, had man been made to experience, at the moment of his first transgression, the utmost rigour of the violated law. The sinning angels were thus made. to suffer. But man found favour in the sight of God, and was spared and placed under an economy of grace, in distinction from one of works,-an economy in which, consistently with the claims of justice, an atonement could be accepted instead of perfect obedience, or the infliction of the legal penalty upon the transgressor.

This was the first instance of grace shown to the guilty, so far as we have any evidence, under the Divine government; and it consisted in the delay of merited punishment, in the opportunity afforded the criminal to make an atonement, and in the continuance of numerous and rich blessings justly forfeited by his disobedience. On this first page, therefore, of man's history, is the record of such grace or favour, as is sufficient to exclude all boasting on his part, and to secure to God all the glory. Yet this is not sufficient; a still further exercise of grace towards the transgressor is necessary to secure his salvation. By another step, therefore, in this work of grace, we have for consideration,

II. The provisions of the Atonement.

Although not called to suffer the immediate infliction of the penalty he has incurred, and placed under an economy in which an atonement can be accepted, instead of the legal penalty, still the sinner cannot make an adequate atonement for his iniquities. The law under which he is placed is the best conceivable, for the Government of a perfect God can recognize no other. Such a law, while it must regard obedience as the best thing and promise to that the highest reward, must also regard disobedience to its requirements as the worst thing, and threaten to that the severest penalty. A penalty of this nature can be nothing less than misery, unmitigated and eternal. This, the Scriptures assure us, is the penalty which God has affixed to the violation of