band of robbers to filch and to steal from the feeble and the poor. May God give us magnanimity and power and riches, that we may throw the shadow of our example upon the poor, the perishing, and the ready-to-be-destroyed, for their protection. And cursedcursed of God, and of men cursed-be that man who counsels the red right hand of war except when it is needful to fight for our own existence! We have no war that we want to wage except the war of righteousness in ourselves. It is not for us to bombard and destroy other nations, and to follow the vices of tyrannies. What is the use of the reign of the common people, where is the glory of democracy, if it can but ape, and with greater cruelty, the mischiefs of despotism? Let kings war; let aristocrats war; but the common people of a great republic should own the brotherhood of man. And, instead of raising aloft the red hand, let them throw the nursing arm of protection around about their neighbors, and call all men their brethren, and dwell together in fealty, in unity, in sympathy, and in happiness.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

Almighty God, we thank thee for the promise which thou hast made unto the Church, and for all the glory of that latter-day which, far away and dim, hangs like a golden haze above the future. We rejoice to believe that men shall not forever debase themselves; that the time shall come when the name of God shall be beloved of all men, and when that love which prevails in heaven shall flow through all the earth, and war be heard no more, and nations vex each other no longer; and when peace and righteousness shall prevail everywhere. We thank thee, O Lord! that we see some of the blessed signs and tokens of this coming glory. Not that it is already established; for men do hate. Men destroy thy heritage, and deface thine image, yet. The power of the lower life is greater than the power of the spiritual life. But we behold on every side the signs and the tokens of spring; not fruits yet, nor even flowers, but the buds, are apparent. And we rejoice to believe that the time shall assuredly come, and that we shall behold it from the other land if not from this, when all the earth shall see thy salvation.

And now, we pray that we may labor in our day and generation 'for the fulfillment of thy righteous will in our own nation. We thank thee that thou hast given us our breath and our life in this goodly land. We thank thee for all the privileges which we have-all that are natural, and all that are derived from the wise laws and institutions of our fathers. We thank thee for the path through which thou hast led us, growing brighter and brighter, and more and more beneficent. Thou hast ordained a place for this people's march; and though at times thou hast chastised us, and passed us through the fiery furnace, yet it has been for good. And thou that hast ordained war hast ordained peace, and with peace four-fold prosperity.

We thank thee especially for the mercies of the year that has gone; that the husbandman has sown his seed in hope, that his hope has not been

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THE TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN PROGRESS. disappointed, and that the harvest has more than fulfilled the expectation of sowing.

We thank thee for the abundance which now gives so much to the need of those who are poor and are feeble. We thank thee for the open hand and the bounty of those that have to spare. And we beseech of thee that throughout all our land there may be given to this people a larger heart, and a feeling of sincere sympathy and of true brotherhood. We thank thee that thou hast given us rest within our borders during the past year; that all the interests of society have been peacefully pursued; that schools have prospered; that colleges have thriven; that churches have been founded, or have been built up; that the word of life has been preached with power from on high.

We thank thee for all the household happiness which has been vouchsafed to us. Our lives have been spared. Thou hast been gracious unto our children. Thou hast multiplied our mercies. Thy judgments have been few, and they have been tempered with very great goodness.

We thank thee for our personal experience; for all the hopes that we have. And now we desire, as in our own homes separately, and in our own hearts, so collectively and together, to give thanksgiving and praise to thee for all the year, and all thy varied manifestations therein. We commend our households, and our state, and this nation, to thy care for the years that are yet to come. Lord God of our fathers, yet be the guide of this people. Be thou their judge and their lawgiver. And we pray that great things may yet be done by this people, for peace, for happiness, for the whole world's regeneration. Let thy kingdom, long predicted, begin to comethat kingdom in which dwelleth righteousness. Oh! let us hear the footsteps, not of one who shall tread down nations in his wrath, but of Him of the pierced feet. Grant, O Lord! that his coming may be speedy, with all the signs of power and of glory. And let the whole earth see his salvation. And now accept, we beseech of thee, the service which we offer up to thee, our prayers, our praises, all the services of instruction. May we rejoice before thee in the hours of this day that yet remain; and may our hearts be glad in the blessing of our God. And when all these earthly experiences are past, be pleased to give us an exceeding and abundant entrance into the joys of thine other land, where we will praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, forever more. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON

Our Father, wilt thou grant thy blessing to rest upon the word spoken. Grant that our hopes, and our courage, and our aspirations, and our yearnings for the future, may not be in vain. Accept our humble acknowledgments of our unworthiness; our acknowledgments of thy great mercy to us, and to our fathers, and to us their posterity. And as thou hast guided us by thy law and counsel hitherto, so continue to guide this great nation, making it greater-making it great for goodness; great for purity; great for the prosperity of inen. And may we live to see it a nation not only peaceful, but breathing the spirit of peace through all the disturbed nations of the earth. Hasten the day when, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, all nations shall know thee and fear thee. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.

THE HIGHER SPIRITUAL LIFE.

"And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagognes, being glorified of all."-Luke iv., 14, 15.

Of the whole early period of Christ's life-his human life—until his baptism, there is no record of the exertion of special power, or even of any considerable influence. For some twenty-seven years, it was a life of seclusion; and whatever may have been the developments of it, there is no record made. His childhood is set out briefly. He reappears once, going with his parents to Jerusalem to the feast, when he was twelve years of age. Then he disappears; and he does not appear again until he is twenty-seven years of age. And during that whole

time, there is almost no disclosure of his power.

A time came, when the veil seemed to be removed. His baptism and his temptation in the wilderness were past. He went back for a month or two to Galilee, after these experiences, and then returned again to Jerusalem, to one of the great feasts. At this time it was that he drove out the money-changers and the traffickers from the temple, and cleansed it. Staying but a short time, he returned to Galilee by way of Samaria. And it is after he has left Samaria behind him, that this record comes in. He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit

Here began, really, the active period of his ministry, which was compressed into a very little more than twelve months. For, although three years are usually assigned to Christ as the period of his ministry, the active period of it was but very little over twelve months-and those the last of his earthly life. There are strange periods in which he is hidden from the sight. In making out a strict chronological view of the public life of Christ, you will find that one month, two months, three months are dropped out and lost sight of; that there is a continuousaccount of him during only the last twelve months of his life; and that in this period almost all his miracles were performed, and almost all his discourses were delivered. This is the period that followed imme

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diately after the statement,-And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.

It is at this point, then, that there was an extraordinary disclosure of the nature and power of Christ. That he had been godly, and that he had exerted moral force, before this, none doubt. That he had in a consecrated spirit successfully entered upon his life-work before this special disclosure, there can be no question. But there came a point at which his spirit was gradually enlarged. There was a new liberty that he experienced. There came upon him an impulse higher and more fruitful than he had ever known before. An influence pervaded him which not only transcended that of his ordinary former condition, but was well nigh irresistible, and carried everything for a time before it, and rolled up the community in waves of excitement as a wind rolls up the waves of the sea. For we have no adequate conception of the degree of excitement that was produced by the first nine or ten months of Christ's ministry in Galilee. All classes felt his personal presence. There scarcely could be developed an open opposition to him. He was glorified by all, is the record. And this continued very much to the end of his life

Here, then, was an ordinary condition in the beginning; then an exaltation into a higher condition of power, which afterwards remained permanent with him. It seemed not so much like new elements of power, as the clothing of former elements with a greater scope and influence. It was not so much that Christ seemed different from what he did before, as that there was more of him of the same kind; and that it was more irresistible. The tenor of his discourses before he returned with the power of the Spirit on him, was substantially the same as the tenor of his after discourses. But the effect was not the same; and the Scripture speaks of this as the result of the divine Spirit resting upon him.

Now, this is full of interest in every way in which you can look at it: First, as bringing up the question of Christ's divinity. Can One who is divine receive augmented powers? Especially can he from an other co-equal Spirit receive augmentation? To this inquiry it may be replied that Christ's life on earth was divine. It was God manifest in or through the flesh. It was the divine circumscribed. It was not in its own full estate, but humbled, environed by laws through the flesh. It restricted, hindered, and at times seemed well-nigh to eclipse the development, the outshining of the divine nature that was within. Therefore he was subject to the same natural law, to the same law of growth and gradual development, and to the same helps that men are. He was a man in all conditions; and his experience partook, step by step, of that universal experience of man which does not imply sin,

but

only limitation or weakness. It indicates also the elaboration of latent power. This power of the Spirit that rested upon Christ seemed to sit over that which was in him before. It brought forth no new elements, but it brought out the divine element that existed previously. It was as the sun, which is not created nor augmented, but which, when the clouds are driven away from his face, shines with a power that he did not before have. This elaboration and enfranchisement of power was the result of spiritual influence from above. It was prefigured at his baptism by the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove resting upon him. It was realized in part from that time; but in full it was disclosed at only about the beginning of the last year of his ministry. In consequence of this, he performed more work, he exerted more influence, in these twelve months than in the whole of his foregoing life.

Interesting as a study in the life of Christ, it becomes even more so in its connections with ourselves-with the whole sphere and operation and possibilities of the human mind. For a like experience will be traced in the apostles' lives. Their call and adhesion to Christ was to take a very low moral state. One is led to marvel, in reading the account of the gathering of Christ's disciples, why he selected such men, from such quarters, and such regions. Nor do I think that we can give any distinct answer to this. In many obvious respects there were men superior to them in Palestine, who might have been had at his beck. Nor do I understand, nor think that I understand, from the words of Scripture which are recorded concerning them, why he first selected the particular kind of men that he did, to be his companions and disciples. But I can see that they were afterwards fitted for their mission by their ultimate susceptibility to the disclosures of the Spirit, which is a very different thing from the mere possession of present talent, or mere moral cultivation. It is evident that he selected them, not for the hours in which he was to be with them, but for their after-work, which, when the Spirit should have descended upon them like a dove, they were to perform.

Nor did the example of his teaching, during the time of his sojourn, remove from them their Jewish prejudices, nor in any way induct them into the spirit or truth of Christ. At the time of his death the disciples were but very little advanced, if any, except in their personal affection for him, beyond Nicodemus, or other devout and spiritual-minded Jews, though they had companied with him.

After his resurrection he did not send them out upon their mission immediately. There was something yet waited for and wanting. He commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the Spirit. If you will turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, you will find this stated emphatically.