of the supreme court rather to visit their friends, and enjoy themselves, than to attend on public business-a practice which could not fail to produce very hurtful effects; and perhaps it was partly owing to this that congregations, in many instances, fell from their ancient laudable custom of furnishing ministers and ruling elders at a distance with the external means necessary to enable them to wait regularly on the judicatories. We trust that it will be long before this neglect of attendance shall prevail in our body. But we should take warning from past experience; the evil creeps in imperceptibly, and when it has become general and inveterate, will resist and baffle every remedy.

In the third place, we may learn from this subject what care ought to be exercised in choosing and setting apart those who are to bear office in the church. The privilege granted to the Christian people, to choose their own pastors and elders, imposes an obligation on them to exercise it with serious deliberation and fervent prayer. There is not a stronger prejudice against the right of popular election than that which has been excited by the haste, the levity, and the capriciousness with which it has often been used. As congregations in many instances can only be partially acquainted with those to whom their choice is limited, and as they are but too apt to prefer the showy to the solid qualities, a higher responsibility rests on the judicatories of the church, to whom it belongs to pronounce a judgment on probationers for the holy ministry, both anterior and subsequent to their election. To them the charge is given, "Lay hands suddenly on no man; be not partakers of other men's sins." The counsel anciently given by a heathen king, is not undeserving of the attention of a Christian synod; "Thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not."

In the fourth place, we may see the scriptural grounds of

* Ezra, vii. 25.

subjection to the authority, and obedience to the determinations of church rulers. These are, the divine institution of ecclesiastical government, the connexion between it and the regal glory of Christ, and the salutary influence which it is calculated to exert upon all other divine institutions, as well as upon the peace, unity, order, purity, and general prosperity of the church as a visible and diffusive society. A base subjection of the conscience to human authority, and a blind and implicit obedience to the decrees of men, without bringing them to the test of the supreme and unerring standard, are equally unscriptural and irrational; but, on the other hand, those who cast off all subordinate and regulated authority in the church, and plead for a boundless liberty to act in all matters of religion according to the dictates of their own mind; those who, though they profess to own authority in general, uniformly contemn its exercise when they themselves are the objects of it, or teach others to do so; and those who cherish a morbid and sickly jealousy of all who are in public office, although they give the most unequivocal proofs of disinterestedness and moderation—are not actuated by the spirit of Christ and of God.

In the fifth place, our subject suggests suitable exercise on occasion of the meeting of ecclesiastical judicatories. It was a custom in the better times of our church, to set apart a day for fasting and prayer before the meeting of a general assembly, to entreat the divine countenance to its deliberations. We are afraid that, in the times in which we live, the same deep interest is not felt in the meetings of the courts of Christ by Christians of any denomination. Are the same fervent supplications now presented which used formerly to ascend from every pulpit, praying society, and family, for weeks before such an occasion as that which has brought us together? Do we need them less? Assuredly no. Have we less encouragement to offer them? Not, so long as the text remains in our Bibles. Let all, then, and especially those who are called to take part in the management of the public affairs of the church, humbly, fervently, and believingly plead that the Lord of Hosts may be to us for a spirit of judgment

when we sit in judgment.. "I have set watchmen on thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day or night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

In fine, reverend fathers and brethren, having received this ministry, let us take heed to it to fulfil it. Let us not faint, but stir up the gift of God that is in us. Let us set the Lord before us, and he will be at our right hand, to instruct and uphold us. Let us take heed to ourselves, and to the whole flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. Let us cherish, and in our deliberations display, that catholic and truly liberal spirit which will induce us to merge the particular interests of those congregations with which we are more immediately connected, in the general and common interest of the whole body for whom we are this day met to act. Let us remember that we judge not for man, but the Lord, who is with us in the judgment—that his glory is deeply concerned in what we do-that the preservation of truth and righteousness, and the eternal well-being of precious souls, are concerned in it-that, for aught we know, the interests of generations yet unborn may be involved in our deliberations that His eyes, which are as a flame of fire, are upon us—and that we must, in a little, individually, and all of us at last, face to face, appear before a greater than any earthly tribunal, and give an account of the use we have made of every talent, and of the manner in which we have managed the sacred trust, committed to us by the Lord of the church, who is now saying to each of us," Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

SERMON XVIII.

THE ASPECT OF THE TIMES.*

DANIEL, xii. 8.

66 O MY LORD, WHAT SHALL BE THE END OF THESE THINGS."

It is impossible for any person to look on the present aspect of Providence, with an observing, and especially a religious eye, without being persuaded that our lot has fallen on critical times, times which teem with important events affecting the interests of society in general, and of the church of God in particular. At no distant period, good men were inclined to hope that the existing agitation was on the surface of society, and that it would soon subside, and leave things in their former state of tranquillity. That day is gone by; and there are few, I believe, how opposite soever their opinions may be of the moral character of the times, who are not now come to the contrary conclusion, and who are not convinced that this ferment is increasing, that its exciting causes are deep and widely extended, that they are as yet but partially developed, and that many days must elapse before the storm shall have spent its rage, and the agitated waves wrought themselves into repose. The Christian, instructed in the course of Providence by a light shed on it from the volume of Revelation, has reasons peculiar to himself for coming to this conclusion. He looks beyond the feeble arm and narrow counsels of men, to the arm and counsel of Him who has all events and all hearts under his absolute control, and who over

* Delivered in May, 1834.

rules them for the accomplishment of his holy and irrevocable purposes. He knows that the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; he is persuaded that he will thoroughly plead the cause which is his own, and is prepared to expect that great changes on the frame of society, both civil and ecclesiastical, will usher in a flourishing state of that kingdom, for the sake of which all kingdoms rise or fall. His eye is therefore directed to the operations of Providence ; and though he knows that these are not the proper rule of what he ought to do in his station, yet he views them with the deepest interest; and, with the overpowering feelings of the wise and holy man in the text, he enquires, "O my lord, what shall be the end of these things ?"

These words belong to a vision with which Daniel was favoured on the banks of the Hiddekel, and which is described in the last three chapters of this book. There appeared to him a man clothed in linen, who, after the prophet had recovered from the swoon into which he was thrown by the heavenly apparition, disclosed to him the future fates of the children of his people. Though some late interpreters have explained the greater part of the prediction in the eleventh chapter as referring to events happening under the Christian era, it seems most natural to apply it to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, the great enemy of God and of his ancient people. That was a time of great trouble to the Jews, and seemed to threaten their extermination as a people, and along with them the extermination of true religion.* This could not fail to oppress the devout and patriotic mind of Daniel, who was relieved, first, by a promise of deliverance to his people, and secondly, by the appearance of two new personages who enquired of the man clothed in linen, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" Daniel "heard, but did not understand" the reply; and taught by this that the theme was too high for him, he turns his question from the time to the manner of the time. "Then said I, O my lord, what shall be the end of these things-these wonders?" It is the

# Chap. xi. 13-35.