tion," Hath a nation changed their gods?" is answered in the affirmative, the blessings of civilization and refinement follow in her train. An uncivilized Christian nation is an unheard-of anomaly; and in the progress of God's scheme for saving our world, angels see, as man might see, did he not shut his eyes, that the time is coming when this earth shall be filled with the glory of God; and that every trophy of the sufferings of Christ, every sinner saved by the preaching of the gospel, is at once a seal attesting the truth of the prediction, and an agent to bring about its fulfillment. In the individual convert himself is seen the wondrous transforming efficacy of the plan of salvation. The tiger is changed into the lamb; the blood-thirsty persecutor into the apostolic martyr; a child of wrath, an heir of hell, becomes a son of God; a fellow-citizen of the saints, an equal with angels, (Luke xx, 36,) a co-heir with Christ himself. This leads to the remark that,

3. Its diffusive nature renders God's method of saving sinners a suitable subject for angelic study. Once they were sent on an embassy to announce his birth, and to make the first proclamation of Heaven's good-will to man. Even yet, as they shall continue to be, until commissioned to reap and gather in the harvest, are they ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. But they have no agency in diffusing the blessings of the gospel. It is left to itself. Man, redeemed and regenerated, is to tell the story. It is itself the leaven that is to leaven the whole lump. True, as before remarked, independently of the Holy Spirit's aid, even the preaching of the gospel is a vain thing, and without him, learning and eloquence can do nothing; yet is it equally true, that every disciple who pleases may have that Spirit's influence; and the first prompting of every converted sinner's heart is to glorify God, by proclaiming how great things he hath done; and by inviting others to participate in the same blessedness. Under a great mistake, indeed, are multitudes of professing Christians, when they imagine their own individual happiness was the first or chief object of the Almighty in their conversion. That they might be happy! Were that all, he might at once, and he would, have translated them away from this region of temptation and trial, to that rest which remaineth for

the people of God. No; his first great object was the advancement of his own glory, by adding another to the army by whom a world is to be brought into allegiance to its Maker and its Saviour. That this is true, is seen in the fact that Christians are happy here just in proportion as they continue to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Let them, as is, alas! the case with too many, let them wrap themselves in selfishness, and sit down, exclaiming, I have passed from death unto life, and now I'll be happy; and soon will the light that is in them become darkness. Not into the history or the conduct of such professors do angels desire to look; but into the results of that glorious copartnership, into which the Almighty, passing by the first-born sons of light, has taken the converted sinner, and enabled him, with all his redeemed brethren of the race, to exclaim, "We are laborers together with God!"

4. The glory of this study is seen further in the freeness with which the blessings of this salvation are offered to the children of men.

(1.) To all indiscriminately. It stops not to inquire into the degree of the sinner's guilt, or the extent of his iniquity. As the Saviour, when on earth he healed the lepers, unstopped the ears of the deaf, and on the sightless eyeball poured the day, asked no questions as to the virulence or the duration of the malady; so, salvation by the sufferings of Christ is offered not only to the moralist, and the good citizen, but to the profligate and the abandoned; to every wretched outcast on this side of the caverns of damnation. And this

(2.) In perfect sincerity. O what a diminution of its glory, if the doctrine had ever reached heaven, and were believed there, that the sufferings of Christ were designed for but a portion of the race, and that its blessings were limited to a few! Or worse still, if upon angelic ears had fallen that modification of the doctrine, which could not have failed to impress on angelic hearts a doubt of God's sincerity-Offered to all, but intended for a few!

(3.) On terms easy, and within the reach of every individual. Is it asked, Why has faith been made the condition of this salvation? The answer is-How could anything else have been made that condition? For, admitting that

some other plan had been devised, it had been essentially necessary to believe in the efficacy of that plan before the sinner could have reaped from it any benefit. Hence it is morally impossible that salvation could have been offered on any other terms, than either faith alone, or faith and something else. God chose the former; and while therein is revealed the brightest glimpse that finite creatures can have of the riches of his goodness and his glory, man is taught, that not for his violations of the moral law he perishes, but for refusing to believe. An atonement has been made for actual transgression, and "he," and he only, "who believeth not, shall be damned." But further,

5. The perpetuity and the fullness of the blessings of this salvation evince its glory, and render it a study worthy of angelic minds. A glorious mystery is couched in that description of Him by whose sufferings this salvation was effected, when he is styled "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world!" In "looking into these things," they gaze not merely upon Gethsemane and Calvary. They date not the commencement of this glory from what we call the fullness of time. They go back beyond the father of the faithful, who rejoiced to see "his day." They beheld the slaughtered Lamb in the typical sacrifices of righteous Abel; they heard of Christ in the enigmatical promise to our first parents. Reaching back to the original transgression, and extending in its efficacious fullness onward to the end of time, they desire to look into that fountain still unexhausted, and for ever inexhaustible, in which a world may wash away its stains-all its stainsfor it cleanses "from all unrighteousness." Crimson and scarlet become like wool and snow. Even on this doomed earth, surrounded by iniquity, and exposed, now to the roaring of him who goeth about seeking whom he may devour, and now to the allurements of an apparent angel of light, a feeble worm of the dust is seen by these heavenly students able to "do all things," and "more than conqueror." It may be fairly questioned whether, in all the universe of God, is to be seen a more glorious spectacle than angels gaze upon, when, in this tainted atmosphere— tempted but triumphant-they mark the perfect man and behold the upright.

Nor does even this indicate the extent of the glory of

"the things into which angels desire to look." The beloved disciple, when in apocalyptic vision his attention was directed to the inner ranks of those concentric circles of which God is the centre, was told, "These are they which came out of deep tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." They were redeemed sinners, the children of men saved by the sufferings of Christ, and exalted thereby to a degree of glory above that of the first-created, who knew no sin and needed no atonement. Well may they desire to look into the mystery and the glory of that salvation which exalts a corrupt nature and an actual transgressor to an eminence that angels may not reach. He whom they worship as sovereign took upon him our nature, and is not ashamed to call us brethren!

In conclusion I remark,

First. This subject cannot be made too frequently the theme of the pulpit. It is the grand central truth around which, as the lesser lights around the sun, all others revolve in glorious harmony. It is the burden of the new song— it is always new!

It is not strange, I remark,

Secondly, that there are mysteries in the scheme of redemption which man cannot fathom. It will be for ever true, in heaven as well as on earth-" Great is the mystery of godliness." Its mystery is its glory.

Finally. I ask, what manner of man must he be who deems it beneath his notice? Is he too wise to pay any attention to that into which angels desire to look? Strange folly-miserable infatuation-madness-that he for whom the mystery and the glory of this salvation have been revealed should turn from it, and allow his attention to be engrossed by the world, by its veriest trifles, by anything, rather than that into which angels desire to look, and an acquaintance with which can alone save him from hell, and secure his immortality!

SERMON VI.

Talent.

BY REV. JESSE T. PECK, D. D.,

PRINCIPAL OF TROY CONFERENCE ACADEMY.

"For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents, went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one, went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them," &c.-Matthew xxv, 14-30.

THE "talent" was originally a species of coin. Metaphorically, it was used to represent human ability, natural gift or endowment; and this figurative, has at length become its literal, use. Theologically, it signifies whatever is intrusted to man by his Maker, to enable him to fulfill the high end of his creation, and is made to constitute the ground and measure of human responsibility. We use it in this latter sense; and the substance of what we intend to say on this theme will be included in the following propositions:

I. God has made a wise distribution of talent among

men.

II. He righteously requires the faithful improvement of the talent given.

III. He has appointed a day of reckoning for the use or abuse of talent.

I. God has made a wise distribution of talent among

men.

"For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one."

1. Physical talent. This is perhaps the lowest order of talent; but it will be found to include more, and involve higher responsibilities, than is commonly supposed. Con