Finally,-May all who shall have any part in carrying forward the religious services of this house, guard against the errors which darken, and the practices which deform the professing Church. And here may the Lord for many years to come record his name, by the faithful preaching of the gospel, and all the institutions of his holy word. And fulfil those promises made to the Head of the Church and his people in him. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.' AMEN.

THE PRESSING CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL:

A SERMON BY REV. H. KEELING.

'Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation! 2 COR VI: 2.

It is not wonderful that mistakes have existed concerning religion, even among those possessing the Bible, and perusing it with care. Under similar circumstances, the appearances of nature, have been misunderstood and the volume of inspiration can scarcely be expected to be plainer. Religion in its fundamental principles, is plain; but as a science, whose laws may be investigated, or as an art whose principles are to be practised, it involves much intricacy. It is precisely so, of subjects which claim our daily attention. Law is an abstruse subject: but no one is in danger of a criminal offence, through mere mistake. Morality is more so. Yet men rarely err through their ignorance. Few things are more complicated than machinery; and yet the mechanical powers are resolvable into three or at most six.

Among the most common mistakes of modern times, is this: that religious discourses are intended to be mere orations, delivered either for amusement or instruction, or at most to convince of some one great truth or duty and to persuade to its belief or performance; and that such discussion may be safely left for fu ture action, when the interview has passed.

It is clear, that the gospel has to do with but two classes of men, the Church, and the world; and the objects it proposes are likewise two, the edification of the Church, and the conversion of the world. It claims the immediate conversion of every sinner to whom it addresses itself.

My business here to-day, is with the latter class. I am come on a distinct errand. Although I am not an Apostle, or a prophet, 12-Vol. 3.

'I have a message;' and to each one present, I affirm, that although I am come on a very different errand from that, of Ehud to Eglon, yet I have a message from God, unto thee.' My object is perfectly intelligible and it deeply concerns you. My business with each, is particular and exclusive, as if he and I were alone. I am not come, to prescribe a remedy for a disease, otherwise mortal; nor to vindicate rights of person or property; nor by my testimony to wipe off reproach from injured reputation. I am here to tell you, how you may be saved; upon what conditions; and why you ought without delay, to comply. The documents are ready; your signature is requisite. Our Master makes a just, reasonable, benevolent proposition. It is for you to agree or disagree, and abide the consequence. Accordingly then, I am to show you,

I. The precise thing, the gospel requires you to do, that you may be saved. On this subject the Bible is explicit, but the public mind confused. Repentance, faith, love, trust in God, external obedience, each of these, and of many other things, is sup posed by many, to be the hinge upon which salvation turns. But if you carefully compare all that the Scriptures teach, you will find, that they reduce all mankind to one class, and suspend the salvation of every rational creature, to whom the gospel comes, on one condition. All, whether Jews or Gentiles are reduced to one class. Skepticism, idolatry, worldliness, profligacy, morality, ambition, thoughtlessness, love of pleasure, it matters not, what predominates, if obedience to Christ is withheld,-they are all so many different aspects of the same thing,-a heart opposed to Christ and to God. All stand on the same level before the Omniscient judge all guilty, and exposed to hell. As the disease is one; so the remedy is one. That is, a cordial reception of Jesus Christ as the only Savior. This is the pascal lamb-the brazen-serpent-the floating ark-the altar-the sacrifice-the priest-every allusion, every service, every truth, every duty, everything looks to Christ. And whatever we are required to do, it all amounts to nothing, except as connected with our cordial reception of him as our only Savior. The figure is changed, but the idea is always the same. I am to show,

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II When this thing is required to be done. Our text is to the point. To-day,' 'now' is the time. In every view you take of the Gospel it claims instant regard.

Invitation. Does it invite? The guests are expected to accept. Not to accept is insult. What else is meant by the parable of the supper? Ho, every one that thirsteth.'

Command. 'God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.' Is the command present expecting future obedience? Is God to be served on credit? It might as well be by proxy. To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.

Warning. Gen ration of vipers, who hath warned you.' 'The axe is laid at the root of the tree, every tree that bringeth

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not forth fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.' Remonstrance. Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?' 'What more could I have done to my vineyard, than I have done in it?' All possible objections to the ground I take, are resolvable into three: the refutation of which leaves the claims of the gospel undisputed.

1. This view of the case makes personal religion instantaneous, and therefore easy, whereas the Scriptures teach differently. Can I enter these walls a vessel of wrath,' and return an heir of glory? The answer is easy. In one aspect of it, piety is progressive; in another instantaneous. The formation of character is necessarily progressive; but its beginning must be at some instant. To become learned in the school of Christ requires your life; but to enter as a pupil is the act of a moment. Your thoughts may retrospect with the rapidity of lightening your whole past history; and you may be for years planning to come to Christ; but whenever your affections do centre in Christ it will be at some moment. If you postpone it till the hour of your death; and then should not be hardened to steel, but repent, it will be as sudden as if it occurred this minute.

2. It takes the work of salvation from the hand of God and places it in the hand of the sinner-and of course dishonors grace and gives glory to sinful man. I deem it important, (in reply) not only to admit, but to maintain that the whole work of salvation is of the Lord. He institutes the means, and gives them efficacy. But these means include our own acts, and the acts of others as instruments. He worketh in us, to will, and to do.' But this implies our willing and our doing. There are many things in metaphysical science, and theological doctrine, beyond our comprehension. But these two truths are axiomatic: when you turn to God, he has inclined you to it, and your turning to him is nevertheless your own act. My business here to day, is not to tell what God does, but what the sinner himself does, that he may be saved.

3. It attaches an importance to means which does not belong to them. The force of this objection depends npon the import of the word means. Many persons think that if they place themselves in the house of God under the ministry of the Gospel, and where prayer is offered by others, they are using the means of grace, and that their duty extends no farther-that spiritual worship is beyond the range of their obligation. The supposition that a heartless service, excluding faith, and love, and every holy exercise, is a divinely appointed means whereby enemies of God may expect to be coerced into friendship for him, is altogether preposterous. The gospel requires a holy service or none-and so does the law. And it is precisely as easy for a sinner to become reconciled to God, by an immediate act of his own, as it is, with a heart totally opposed to God, honestly to use means of reconciliation. Having thus briefly, but fairly stated what the

gospel requires you to do that you may be saved; and when you are to do it; I proceed,

III. To offer some reasons why you should instantly comply. 1. Every thing that you hold dear in the universe, is at stake. The loss threatened, is yourself. If it were your mortal life, it would be a comparative trifle; but it is your eternal life. Were your fortune confiscated,-your body threatened with the loss of a single faculty, as seeing or hearing, or your liberty endangered -you would turn pale, and tremble or weep. When our kindred die, we sorrow, and put on the habilaments of woe. But for such a loss as this, there are no sighs fit to be sighed, no tears fit to be wept, no habilaments of mourning fit to be put on. Man, are you dead, or are you insane, that you can believe the declarations of the Bible, be unprepared for the coming account, and yet feel easy? It is not wonderful my Christian brethren, that when we reflect on the condition of our unconverted friends, we are nervous, and feverish, and sleepless.

2.

Your increasing danger requires it. God is unchangeably the same. The gospel is the same now as when Paul preached it. Your relation to God is the same, as when you first heard it. But you are not the same. Every act of unbelief darkens the cloud of your guilt. Every hour's delay to submit to Christ, throws you in a moral progression farther from God. You rush with accelerated velocity, from an immeasurable hight of prive lege to the vortex of ruin. Or as the Bible expresses it; you 'heap up wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.' Your mere habit of unholy action renders your salvation, momently less and less probable. When you first heard the thunders of Sinai you shuddered with fear-when you first listened to the story of the Savior's love, your heart melted with grief-but now you are adamant.

3. If you perish you have no excuse; nor alleviation of your guilt and folly. If you had been born in a heathen land-or under the old dispensation-or at the dawn of gospel day;-the case would have been different. Or if God had given you no heart, or no conscience; or if the way of salvation had been hard; or if you had not been prayed for, and preached to, and wept over;-you had had some apology. But now, none, absolutely none. You saw the volcano sending forth its lava, and rushed to the ruin. You do not refuse to build an ark that you may be saved, but to enter that ark when built: and that too when you see the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened If in this voyage you suffer shipwreck, it will not be on the trackless ocean, in a hurricane, but in sight of land, stubbornly steering in awrong direction, and yourself at the helm.

THE

BAPTIST PREACHER.

VOL. III.

June, 1844.

NO. 6.

THE DEVOTED PASTOR:

A sermon, by REV. STEPHEN P. HILL, of Baltimore.

'We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake.'-2 COR. IV: 5.

The institution of the gospel ministry, although at first sight, it appears a feeble and insignificant instrumentality, is notwithstanding, the means, which God in his infinite wisdom has selected for the salvation of the world. It hath pleased Him by what is deemed the foolishness' and weakness of preaching to save them that believe.' Not that all men who assume the sacred office are called and qualified of God to preach the gospel. There were many in the time of the Apostles, who professed to be public teachers, and who from various motives of a selfish and unholy character, thrust themselves like 'fools' into the place 'where angels fear to tread.' Some like Simon Magus had no higher view of the awful work than that it was to be purchased with money. Some like Diotrephes, strove for it that they might have the pre-eminence. Some preached Christ from envy and strife and contention, supposing to add affliction to the Apostle's bonds. Such were 'false Apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ:—and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.' The truth is there was never any thing good, that was not capable of being counterfeited. There are not only hypocrites in the Church, but hypocrites in the Ministry. It was a remark of that venerable man, Abraham Booth, that he feared there would be found a larger proportion of wicked ministers than of any other order of professing Christians. Certainly the Lord Jesus Christ includes this number among the many' that will say to him in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.'

Personal piety in the Minister of the Gospel is the first qualification to be sought. The questions to be asked, are not, Is he