any moment to be struck down and sunk to endless wo! Here then the sinner is brought into a sad strait. Above, is the sword of Divine vengeance, gleaming ethereal fire; from underneath, are heard the mutterings of that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; while all around him, there arises an impervious wall of sin. This is the light in which the sinner must see, and, to some extent feel himself, in order to salvation. Like Isaiah, he must become willing to confess, "that he is a man of unclean lips;" or like Job, that he is "vile;" for such is his exact relation to the "Lord of hosts."

Secondly, through the Gospel we learn the ground of deliverance from guilt. By the first item of saving knowledge, the sinner's fears become excited. It cannot be otherwise. Though the convictions, which distress his soul are essential to his acceptance, yet he can see in them naught but threatening evil. Behind him is a polluted life; above, he sees a holy God; in front, all is darkness! For the first time in his life he is overtaken by the storm of God's wrath. The tempest increases in fury and blackness! God's fiery indignation flashes deep into his soul. His first inquiry is how he shall be rescued. Surround a man with danger and he attempts escape. Release from peril is the desire universal. When calamity threatens, the mind seeks to avert the catastrophe.

But poor wretch! what shall he do? Whither flee? His own righteousness can no longer shield him from the pelting storm. Every step of his way has been stained with guilt. To his astonishment he has found that in him there dwelleth no good thing. Nor can he forget his convictions. As easily could the dying man forget the fever which drinks up his blood. Where shall he obtain relief? Blessed be God! the remedy is at hand. The Gospel, if it kill, can also make alive. If it wound, it can cure. God has "laid help upon one who is mighty to save. Even on Jesus, "the mediator of the new covenant. The cross! suspending the Savior, as an offering for sin, a ransom for ruined man, has all this time been overlooked. The troubled soul, in its agony, has not looked out of itself. As soon, however, as it turns to calvary, where Jesus groaned, bled, and yielded up the ghost-an event in which were concentred the patience, obedience, compassion and love of Christ, it must relent. In that stupendous scene the sinner sees justice satisfied! He learns that God in Christ can be just, and, at the same time, justify the transgressor. That all God requires is the hearty belief of this great truth. Unwavering confidence in the atonement, as God's method of salvation, will make the moral thunder cease, the clouds of despair to scatter, and the cross of salvation to loom out of the thick darkness!

In no system of philosophy can such help be found. Man, incased in depravity, dreamed not of assistance from any source.

17

プラ

This provision for lost souls, had its origin in the Divine compassion. "When there was no eye to pity and no arm to save, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.' Hear testimony on this point. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. "He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification.

Surely, here is news for the weeping sinner! to a thirsty soul,

"As cold water so must this be to his troubled spirit! Here, at the cross, he may sit, wonder, admire, and adore that Iove, which made so merciful a provision for his poor soul. But,

Thirdly, it is in the Gospel that Divine aid is promised to promote our return to God. Its necessity comports both with reason and revelation. If needless, it had not been tendered. God has never revealed a superfluous doctrine. To appreciate the importance of the Spirit in the work of conversion, we may only consider our degradation and helplessness. Who that views man, steeped in pollution-waging war against all good, but must see the necessity of Divine interposition to turn him from the error of his ways? The re·laiming a soul from a life of the deepest corruption to uprightness of heart, is an inexplicable enigma, unless we ascribe the change to the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. This passage, however, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit,' unfolds the mystery. God, the Spirit is the author of the change. With a resurrection voice does he call the corrupting Lazarus from the tomb of spiritual death. Loose him, he says, from the integuments of sin, and let him go. By this power only does the soul lift itself from the earth and "arise to newness of life. " "Not of blood, is one born, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God." It is this supernatural agency, operating through the preached word, which discovers to a man his true relation to eternal things; enables him to repose confidence in Jesus; sanctifies, and so prepares him for heaven. It is the Spirit who communicates a spiritual taste, enlightens our darkened understandings, and gives simplicity to many passages in the Scriptures, which, without his influence, might appear dark and perplexing.

The doctrine of Divine influence, though opposed by some, towers from the Gospel like the apex of a pyramid towards the sun. While earthly exhalations conceal its base-from its summit, it reflects the rays of heavenly light. To believe this doctrine is not to trust, to idle speculation, but to notice its transforming effects in the life, and on the conduct. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God."

Show me a man, then, whose once ferocious temper is subdued into mildness; who, instead of clanning with the wicked, fills his place in the Lord's house; who, by every act of his life, exhibits humility, and a sense of unworthiness in the sight of his Divine Father; and in him you have an individual, renovated by the saving influences of the Holy Spirit. The word was rendered effectual by his sealing power, and so a soul was taken from the miry clay," and established firmly on the rock Christ Jesus.

Man's exact relation to God and the future-the ground of his deliverance from "the wrath to come -and the power by which he is quickened into holiness, are items of knowledge, essential to his happiness and ultimate redemption.

2. That the Gospel is the only medium of saving knowledge, is plain from the intention of its ordinances. Connected with the new dispensation are too positive institutions. Baptism, the first, is a rite, denoting a change of heart, supposed to have taken place in the individual submitting to it. A change by reason of which, the understanding is made to acquiesce in, and the affections to harmonize with, the revealed will of God. The immersion of a believer in water, represents the soul cleansed of its guilt-raised from a death of sin, to a life of purity. It is in figure what the burial and resurrection of Christ were literally. It also points to the general resurrection. Human redemption will not be completed till the dead shall be raised at the last day. Though the soul soars to realms of bliss, and is present with the Lord the moment after death, yet till the body glorified shall be united to it, the great end of Christ's mission into the world will not be consummated. The general resurrection, however, will as certainly come to pass as that Christ himself was raised from the sepulchre. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. When that glorious period shall have arrived, then shall it be said, "Death is swallowed up in victory." His sting extracted, the grave conquered, man will stand disenthralled from the results of the transgression. How accurately, how consolingly, and how beautifully, does the immersion of a believer delineate death and victory in their several forms! Speak we of the burial and resurrection of Christ? the immersion in, and the raising a proper subject out of the water represents them. Or of a death to sin and a resurrection unto holiness? this same ordinance declares them. Or of that day "when all that are in their graves, shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth?" In this sublime institution, we have it in figure.

The Lord's Supper is both commemorative and prophetic. It looks back to the cross, and forward "to the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ." It stands, at the same time, for the cause and the fruition of our hope.

"As oft

as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come.

These rites present the professor before the world, as "a new creature. They imply a death to sin, a resurrection unto life, and point to Christ as "the author and finisher" of the Christian faith. Therefore being connected only with the Gospel, and drawing the line between the Church and the world, they testify to the Gospel as the only medium by which to obtain a saving knowledge of God.

3. Our proposition is sustained in the unparalleled success of the Gospel. God honors truth with the seal of his approbation. Error, except when aided by persecution, progresses slowly. Mahomet toiled a long time before the sentiments of the Koran took root. Nor, till enforced by the threat of arms, did the Arabians receive them. The "Romish Church," by bribery, intimidation, and torture, sought to subvert the truth as it is in Jesus. But his words, "Fear not little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," had gone forth. Therefore her machinations against his cause proved fruitless.

Consult history, sacred and profane, for the effects resulting from the proclamation of the Gospel. No carnal weapons, no parade of wealth and lordly equipage; no artifice and cunning craftiness were employed:-no Mahomets, Charlemagnes, nor mitred Pontiffs, were needed to compel acquiescence. The plain, pathetic story of Christ crucified, and Christ raised from the dead, was enough to win thousands over to the Christian Faith. The simple preaching of unpretending men, could heave the bosoms and start the tear, and extort the cry: "What shall we do?"

"what must I do to be saved?"

In a short while Jerusalem was filled with their doctrine. First three thousand, then five thousand, and daily such as should be saved, were added to the Church. By this amazing process, by men called foolishness, the Divine Message was sent towards all parts of the earth. Like a fructuous vine, whose roots fasten in a rich soil, its tendrils took hold on Asia, Africa, Europe, and finally, America. To this day, as in Samaria of old, the people, "believing the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, are baptized both men and women. Every week do we hear of revivals and large ingatherings, from different parts of the world.

What conclusion shall we draw from hence? What other can we, than that a knowledge and power are communicated through the Gospel, procurable from no other source. It is emphatically, though mysteriously, "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."

The only reasons given, for the adoption of this method in preference to any other, are the pleasure of God, and the ignorance of the human race. The text supposes the energy and

acuteness of human intellect to have been fully tested. "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

In whatever aspect we regard the Gospel, whether in the light of its doctrines, ordinances, or success, it plainly exhibits itself, as the only medium by which to obtain a saving knowledge of God. III. Having established our propositien, we, in the last place, proceed to some inferences.

1. If the Gospel be the only medium of salvation, then it should be preached. Though it contains all the principles needed to reconcile man to his God, still he must be informed of them, and become interested in them. The Gospel has not intrinsically the power either of locomotion or speech. God has originated the plan of human redemption, taught the doctrines, precepts, and general duties growing out of it, but these will avail nothing unless they be published. Because of this, our Savior when on earth, not only died for the world but sent out preachers to proclaim salvation to all who should believe, to call home the wandering sheep to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. "How," asks Holy writ, "shall they hear without a preacher?" Preaching, (by which we here mean oral proclamation,) is God's peculiar method, as explicitly set forth in the text.

2. It ought to be published in its native purity. If it be the word of inspiration, then is it perfect. It needs not embellishment, enlargement, nor simplicity. Coming from God who knows what is in man, it must be in all respects adapted to our wants. Its doctrines should be assented to, and its ordinances practiced, just as they are revealed, without hesitation or doubt. And so doubtless they would be, if the heralds of the cross would maintain uniformly, a pure speech. It was the boast of Paul that he could say for himself and his coadjutors: "We are not as many who corrupt the word. " Would that the same might be said now. But alas! the interests, ignorance, or prejudices of some, who cry from the watch-towers, influence them either to conceal a part of the message, or, which is the same thing, give it a wrong interpretation. Wo! to that minister who shall mislead immortal souls. Wo! wo! to those blind guides who tamper with eternal things and cause the unwary to err. To perpetuate a pure Gospel among us, as Baptists, two things are required.

not

1. We want competent, dauntless teachers: "Faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." Men who shall possess, only a stock of general literature, but who can expound the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel with clearness and effect. I object not to a cultivated fancy, a finished style, nor the graces of oratory: these are desirable accomplishments. But, above all, let the sense of the text be given. If a man's imagination permit, let him explore the universe, and bring illustrations from her 2-Vol. 3.