SERMON.

1 CORINTHIANS, 1: 28, (LAST CLAUSE.)

"YEA, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.”

THIS clause contains a complete thought, and suggests to us a theme rich enough, large enough, to engage and reward our evening's meditation. It is proper, therefore, to single it out from the others with which it stands associated, and to make it the subject of our discourse. And yet, in so separating it, we must not sacrifice the peculiar significance and the added impressiveness which it derives from its position, or the light which is cast on it by its companions. It is the last of a series of clauses, of which each that precedes it prepares the way for it, and by natural progress leads the mind toward it. And it is only when we view it at the head of this series, as summing up and surpassing the previous clauses, that we precisely discern and wholly appreciate its scope and meaning.

"For ye see your calling, brethren," says the Apostle; "how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." The foolish and the weak, the base and the despised things-it is only natural that from the last

and lowest of these, the things which are noticed only to be contemned, the Apostle should step to the things which are not; that is, which have either no existence, except in germ or mere possibility, or certainly no existence that is recognised by mankind; which arrest no thought, excite no fear, and are not prominent enough to be scorned. And these things, he says, the Lord hath chosen-these things which seem still weaker than the weakest, and whose very being appears but a dream of the imaginative enthusiast-THESE things hath he chosen, to bring to nought the THINGS THAT ARE; the great insti tutions, establishments, forces, which mark or mould the constitution of society. He hath chosen them for this purpose, to the end that his name may be magnified by their agency, and his glory be revealed in their ultimate triumph. He is able to bring them to success and to victory, to human thought non-existent as they are, because his foolishness is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And when it is done, no flesh shall be able to glory in his presence. How complete is the climax to which we are brought, as we thus view the passage! How sharply discriminated from those that attend it, is the thought which is contained in these last words! And how fruitful and wide is the field which it opens to our survey! It is a thought, too, peculiar to the Gospel; and which for that reason the better befits an occasion wholly devoted, as this is, to conference concerning its further advancement.

That the "Things which are,” at any time, in human society, however venerable, however strong, are always liable to be displaced by others, which were not in existence, or were not of recognised importance and power, when the former were established, but which subsequently and often suddenly are brought to developement and mastery; that thus the aspects of society and history are continually changing, and each successive form of civilization is likely in its turn to give place

to another, into whose life its own may be absorbed, but under whose differences it is buried:-these are facts familiar as any fact of nature; which impress immediately the most careless observer; to question which, with so many annals before us, crowded with thick reports of change, were like denying the atmosphere itself. That the movement which thus is constantly going on, through the centuries, around the world, is on the whole a movement for the better; that the "Things which are not," so far as men's earlier knowledge is concerned, which exist but in embryo, and are only to be developed by a keener observation, or a more profound and exhaustive experience, are yet usually superior to the things which precede them, and more replete with a vitalizing energy; that thus each industrious and thoughtful community is likely to surpass in its later years the attainments of its earlier, and the race itself to be gradually enriched, invigorated, and elevated, as the centuries proceed :-these also are facts which modern. history clearly illustrates, and which, without any indiscreet optimism, we may gratefully accept. But that these things of which the age that is at any time knows not and dreams not, these powers which exist in it only in germ, and which make no appeal either to its hopes or its sensitive fears, that these, while hidden so remotely from man, are all the time present to the mind of the Most High; that they are indeed his pre-ordained instruments, not only for working the changes which shall come in the aspects or in the life of Society, but for the higher, grander purpose of establishing supremely His Kingdom in the world; that he has incorporated their unseen elements with the system of things in order that ultimately he may use them in this office, and make them auxiliaries in subjecting the world to his truth and his Son :-these are facts the declaration of which is peculiar to our Religion; yet which it not only affirms with authority, but exhibits and demonstrates, in its actual advancement toward the conquest of the

Earth; and which it offers to every believer-to us who are here assembled this evening-as a basis on which to found the assurance of its ultimate triumph.

So here, as every where, does Christianity vindicate its origin in God's mind, by placing us at once upon the highest levels of truth, and opening to our minds the widest range for reflection. And the words of the Apostle, holding in them a principle so specific and profound, present to us a theme appropriate and adequate to our present occasion.

To this theme, therefore, Fathers and Brethren, I invite your attention: THE " THINGS WHICH ARE NOT,"-which are not recognised by man, and which subsequent times alone are to develope into power and mastery —THESE ARE FROM THE FIRST GOD'S CHOSEN INSTRUMENTS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF HIS KINGDOM IN THE WORLD. If this be true, the relations of the fact to the character, power, and government of God, and the bearings of the fact on our Missionary enterprise, will indicate themselves to all our minds.

That we may get the thought fully before us, as it lay at first in the mind of the Apostle, and may receive the perfect impression of those illustrations of its truth which were given in the centuries that succeeded, let us call before us in rapid review the scenes amid which the text was written, and then the events which became its immediate and complete vindication. It was written, you remember, from that delightful and populous city planted by the Ionian colony on the hills overlooking the Asian meadows,' along the Cayster. In this city of Ephesus, important and peculiar, partly Greek but still more Oriental in its manners and spirit, the metropolis of a province, and with a commerce that drew to its wharves the representatives of all nations, in which schools of philosophy seem so much to have abounded that one of them was opened to Paul for his labors, yet in which the Eastern superstitions

and magic darkly and haughtily confronted philosophy, and still had a power which they had not either at Athens or at Rome, in this city, the remains of whose magnificent theatre yet strew the ground in colossal confusion, and above which then shone in splendid beauty the Temple of Diana, whose graceful colonnades first revealed the full beauty of the Ionic style, and whose columns of jasper still perpetuate among men the vision of its glory,-in this city where the East and the West were commingled, and within whose spacious walls and harbor was assembled so busy and so various a life,-it was natural that the Apostle, coming westward from Antioch, should tarry for a time, that he might there proclaim the Gospel. And so he abode there for more than two years, and from thence he wrote the epistle before us.

It was written to Corinth; that wealthier, more brilliant, and more luxurious town, planted upon the celebrated Greek Isthmus, and by its position attracting the trade not only of Greece, but of all the countries whose shores were washed by either of the seas between whose almost meeting waves it fortunately stood; above which arose in austere grandeur the precipitous heights of the Acro-Corinthus ; around which was spread the loveliest beauty of the land and the water; whose architecture was unrivalled, even in Greece, in its sumptuous elegance; in whose streets all arts that skill could gain, and all the gifts that commerce could bring, were equally at home; and yet whose manners were so licentious that even in that gross pagan age its very name was a synonyme for vice, and that from it went a constant influence which defiled and demoralized wheresoever it touched.-To the Christians in this city Paul wrote from Ephesus the letter which contains the declaration of the text.

In effect, therefore, he had before him while writing the whole expanse of the Mediterranean; that 'many-nationed' sea, still full of interest to us and our times, but which was to