Ethiopia, "that man was born there." He would tell his acquaintance around him, that there were great and mighty communities upon the earth. He would tell them of Rahab, the ancient name of Egypt, directing their attention to Egypt's first efforts in the creation of science, and the diffusion of knowledge and of the arts. He would tell them of the Pharaohs that were born there, and the extent of their conquests by which they had covered themselves with their glory. He would tell them, then, of Babylon-of her towers, her walls, her trenches, the multitude of her inhabitants, the extent of her conquests, and her Nebuchadnezzars; he would tell them, that these great monarchs were born there. He would tell them of Philistia, and the giants of Gath, and the mighty men that were born there. He would tell them of the commerce of Tyre, and the Phenicians that sprang from their bosom: he would speak of the honour of being denizens of these great and mighty territories. But he would turn from this view, that he might be disposed to take, when considering things in the glass of this world, and he would think of the superior honour and the higher glory of the men who had been born in Zion: he would tell us, that when God should write up the number of his people, he would speak only of those who were honourably born in Zion. The great and the mighty monarchs of antiquity-the Cyruses, the Alexanders, the Nebuchadnezzars, and the Cæsars, the men that shook the thrones of earth, and then ruled them at their pleasure, will all be forgotten, and covered with the insignificance which belongs to this world's affairs, when the Church shall shine forth in the habiliments which Christ shall throw around her, and when those subjects that are taken up, as the ground-work of our most splendid poems, and that are treated as the matter of our chief historians, and that are regarded as constituting the very outworks of the records of our policy, will all be yielded to the grovelling dust on which they laboured; and the men who belonged to Zion-the Abrahams, the Isaacs, and the Jacobs, the Isaiahs, the Jeremiahs, the Ezekiels, and the Daniels, down to Malachi the last of the prophets—and beginning again with the Apostles, and reckoning up the martyrs of every age-will stand out as the lights by which the Church will be directed through the dark journey of her pilgrimage, while the men associated with this world's glory shall be forgotten for ever.

Let me direct your attention, in the last place, to THE GREAT CAUSE OF ZION'S ESTABLISHMENT.

Is Zion to be established by the power of man? his armour, his sword, his shield, and his buckler:

Then let every man put on then let every man employ

his wealth, his talents, his intellect, his philosophy, and let the things of the present world be employed, for the purpose of carrying out the conquest of the Church, and let there be thrown around us, in the efforts of our powers, the proofs of our earnestness that Zion should be established.

"Not by

But we dare not speak of Zion as established by the power man : might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," said the Lord of Hosts, when he was about to establish literal Zion of old, after the return from the Babylonish captivity. Such principles will apply to the establishment of Zion still; and the God of providence, let me observe in the first instance, presides over the means by which Zion may thus be established. We are not to suppose, we have nothing to do with the establishment of Zion. We have to do with the providence of God, we have to do with the promises and encouragements of God; and whilst, my friends we are engaged in all the ordinary means by which we

can cultivate the missionary field, we are looking up to the providence of the Highest himself, for their application to the grand purpose of the establishment of Zion. We must bring the seed with us, like the husbandman, cast it into the ground, look up to heaven and acknowledge our helplessness, pray for the early and the latter rain, that they may descend on the earth, and see, as the issue of their descent, first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear; whilst we have been only applying means, in themselves inefficient, yet devolving on us as a solemn duty; and the providence of God, with all its presiding energies, has been affecting and influencing all the movements of the earth and its nations, for the accomplishment of the object in which we have been engaged.

The providence of God, however, my friends, is not the only channel through which the Highest will establish Zion: we must look also to the Spirit of God. If there is no nation that rises without the divine permission, no nation that falls without the same permission-if God putteth down and lifteth up kingsthen we look to all the movements of the earth as his. But if we are asked whether these improvements would affect the grand end, and erect a spiritual palace for the Lord, we answer no. The Spirit of the Highest is essential to this grand object; and, therefore, we look for that Spirit, to give power to the word in the hearts of those amongst whom we sound out the glad tidings of the kingdom. We are come to the work, conscious of our powerlessness, but strengthened by the consciousness of the power of God. We come to the work, having the means clearly laid before us, and the obligation devolving upon us; but we come to the work, confiding in the strength of Omnipotence to assist us. It is in this way, then, that God gives establishment to his Church, and it is in this way that the Highest will himself continue to advance his great work. We are, therefore, in perfect keeping with the design of Zion's final establishment, while we are employed in sending out those who testify the glad tidings of the grace of God. The two grand instruments by which the Highest operates, are Providence and the Spirit of God. Before the former, kingdoms melt away and kingdoms rise to light; before the latter, spirits lost in darkness, are enlightened; and affections alienated from God, are brought back to the exercise of his love. In the hand of Divine Providence, counteracting circumstances are changed, barriers are broken, stumbling blocks are lifted up, walls are thrown down, languages are learned, the Scriptures are translated, commerce opens the way to their circulation, and sometimes even the blood-stained tide of war is subdued by the oil of the good word of the kingdom, and followed by the importation of the word of truth; and thus proves, that though the destroying sword of man was in the front of the battle, the glory of God was in the rereward; and though the sinful passion of earthly ambition laid the design and executed the plan of proud innovation, God was waiting the result of man's achievement, to prove that the God of battles had been watching till the strife of war should yield to peace on earth and good-will to men.

To conclude: let me direct your attention, for a moment, to the difficulties that may lie in your way. Do you still find, even while you have before you the certainty of Zion's establishment, and that, by the Highest himself—not difficulties from God (he is omnipotent and unerringly wise) but difficulty from man? The directors of your missionary societies are all men; your missionaries are all men; your subscribers are all men; the spectators of your doings are ali men; and that very humanity which has sometimes, perhaps, with

unexpected ardour, swelled the gale and filled your sails, may finally turn round and counteract your voyage, and probably hinder the work of your hands. Is this matter of surprise? Is this like the abruptness of a ball from the clouds, unexpected till it struck the wanderer dead, who had not the opportunity of hiding his head from its fury? Are you not aware of the words of Him who cannot lie—“ It must needs be that offences will come?" Difficulty was not unanticipated, nor is it now; it belongs to the history of the Church in all the ages of the world. "Abstain," said the Apostle, "from all appearance of evil :" "Let not your good be evil spoken of." "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." There is the history of your exposure, and there is the record of your duty. If difficulties should arise from this quarter, they are associated, not with Zion, but with the weakness of Zion's sons. Meet them just as an embodied few would meet the hostile many, that would overthrow their strength, or forbid their advance: redouble your energies as your difficulties may press; increase your watchfulness in proportion to your exposure; put out a larger measure of wisdom as you may be likely to become entangled in your path. Look around you; there are those who, with an evil eye, are watching for your halting; and learn tactics from the enemy to whom you are opposed, but with this difference-that, while they lean on their own wisdom, and their own strength, your resting place be the arm of the Lord your God: and then, if you believe that providence is one pillar of your cause, and the support of the God of providence the other, while the wisdom of the Lord Jesus sits at the helm, and directs the storm-while both are assailed, is there any ground upon which you have reason to doubt, or on which you should hazard a fear?" All these things are against me," said the patriarch of old, when he for a moment forgot to seek the directing wisdom of the divine Spirit, or rely on the presiding care of a watchful Providence: but when he reasoned thus, he reasoned behind a cloud, beyond which there was a brilliant sun; and the return of the messengers from Egypt, was only wanted to dissipate the gloom, and to lead him to that view of a kind and interfering Providence, which brought down his grey hairs, not with sorrow, but with joy to the gravethat enabled him to say, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord."

From these views of God's establishment of Zion, and of the difficulties that stand in your way, but which must be overcome, while this is your motto, “The Highest himself shall establish her"-then I would say, go forth in the great cause in which you have embarked. Look at your Missionary Society, not as the perfection of beauty which the fulness of the divine dispensation has fashioned, but look on the Missionary Society, as the first streaks of that day, which is finally to break on the benighted world. Turn not away from them to the darkness you have left behind you, because these rays exhibit no luminous centre, to which they all converge, in order to give a condensed glory and beauty. Wait till the moment shall have come, and hasten it on by your humble, dependent, and united labours, when you shall be destined to behold the King in his beauty, in the land that is afar off. And if victory is not at once connected with your effects, lose not the patience that perseveres to the end; for "they that endure to the end," and they alone, "shall be saved." Cloth yourselves, therefore, with the feelings and spirit of them that fight: quit ye like men: be strong. Say not the cause is feeble, and the issue doubtful; but let every mind be encouraged and every arm nerved: and while the passions of men may hiss around you, pass on, like the vessel in the storm, conscious that the Pilot is on board, and that the haven is near.

LIFE A STATE OF DISCIPLINE FOR ETERNITY.

REV. H. MELVILL, M. A.

CAMDEN CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, MARCH 2, 1831.

"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."-COLOSSIANS, i. 12.

You will often meet, in the perusal of Scripture, with references to our present state of being as most strictly preparatory to another. The general representation of the Bible appears to be, that this earth is not only a scene of ✔ probation, but that it is, yet further, a scene of moral discipline, and that by the schooling and training of which we are here made the subjects, we become fitted for the business and enjoyment of a higher sphere. And there are few points in theology which, for practical worth, deserve more to be impressed on men's minds than this—that, over and above the obtaining the right of admission to heaven, there must be obtained a meetness for its possession. It is quite evident, that, whatever the scenery and characteristics which we ascribe to the future home of the saints, we must suppose ourselves endowed with just those organs and faculties which shall be effectual for appropriating the beauty and the blessed-, ness; otherwise (to use a common expression) the whole would be thrown away on us, and we could be nothing advantaged by the splendid things and the lovely which might girdle us around.

The most casual and thoughtless observer must often be struck with the adaptation of the earth to the creatures who inhabit it, or the adaptation of the creatures to the earth which they inhabit. It is this adaptation, which makes the eye, for example, a more powerful witness to the existence of a God than any one, or all, of those magnificent worlds which we see travelling the firmament. It is perfectly clear, that the eye has been constructed with a wise reference to the properties of light, or that the properties of light have been regulated with a view to the mechanism of the eye. If you did not think it incredible that the eye might be a chance production, or that light were a chance production, you would require an infinitely greater degree of credulity before you could think that same chance production might be exactly fitted to the other chance production. The proofs which we search for when wishing to demonstrate from the visible creation the existence of a Creator are, evidences of design, seeing that, in proportion as we detect evidences of design, we charge absurdity on the theory that the world around us is not the work of an intelligent Creator: and it is impossible to imagine a greater evidence of design than is put forth by the eye, inasmuch as if an organ were to be constructed which were adapted to the properties of light, the eye is precisely that organ; so precisely indeed, that if in the least respect altered, it would become unfitted for the purposes of vision. Thus in the mechanism of the eye, a mechanism which distinctly shews that the

eye was intended for the light, or the light for the eye, you have a greater witness to the intelligence of the Creator, and you have a greater evidence of design, than astronomy can ever find in all her marchings over unlimited space.

But our business is simply with the adaptation of man to his present dwellingplace, or the adaptation of the dwelling-place to those who inhabit it. This adaptation must force itself, we say, on the most unobservant. You will all admit, that man seems to have been made on purpose for the earth, or the earth for man. If our organs and feelings were not exactly what they are, or if the objects around us were not exactly what they are, we must believe, that in either case we should be quite unfitted for a residence upon earth. There must be the adaptation of the dwelling to the inhabitant, or of the inhabitant to the dwelling; otherwise, however the bare existence may be possible, it is evident that enjoyment would be wholly out of reach. And certainly, observing how the adaptation has been attended to in our present state of being, we might naturally conclude that it will not be neglected in our future state; that, whatever the blessedness of heaven, we shall be required in some sense, to be made meet for its enjoyment. If heaven at all differ from earth, it is clear that man would gain little or nothing by the being transferred from the one to the other without the passing of any change on his powers and dispositions. You may tell me, that I am to be translated at death to another planet, and that I am there to mingle with another and a nobler order of beings; but unless you also tell me of some great alteration which shall be passed upon myself, there is nothing to allure me in the opened-up prospect. If I were suddenly placed on some far-off star, with exactly that apparatus of organs, and faculties, and feelings, which fits me for dwelling upon the earth and for companionship with men, the likelihood is that I should be so com✓pletely and in every sense a stranger, so altogether out of my element, that it were not easy to imagine a greater dreariness and wretchedness than would fall to my portion. To the natural inhabitant of the star, its landscapes might be those of an exquisite and unrivalled loveliness,but possibly mine eye would be quite unadapted to the scenery, and there would be presented to me nothing but a blank or deformity: the natives of the planet might be charmed with the sounds which enchant them with their melodiousness, but mine ear would not be constructed so as to receive these modulations, and the music would be to me only harshness and discord and however there might be circulating through all the hosts of the inhabitants the charm of a choice and intimate friendship, there would be nothing in common between me and them, and the difference in nature would prove an insurmountable barrier to all that is pleasing and profitable in interThus it is only so far as with change of scene, we suppose change of organs, there can be any thing attractive in the prospect of removal from the earth to a wholly different habitation. The idea of happiness pre-supposes necessarily that adaptation of the being and the sphere on which we have spoken, and which is so clearly to be traced in our present existence, that unless there be this adaptation, you must all perceive, that the dwelling to which we are transplanted might be one on which God had expended far more of the riches of his might and contrivance than on that which we left, and that its tenantry might vastly out-do human kind in glory and intelligence; but that, in place of being advantaged by the exchange, we should just pass into a condition of desclation and misery, such as we have never experienced while inhabiting this lower

course.

creation

Now though we have sketched our illustration from the adaptation of our