PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

We thank thee, O God! for thy pity. How helpless are we, striving against the mighty forces that are at work around about us, ignorant, inconstant, and often overborne! How often in our outward and bodily life do we need the suggestions of thy wisdom and the government of thy care and kindness! For all thy mercies through providence we thank thee. And we rejoice that thou knowest what things we have need of before we ask thee, and that thou art preparing and wilt prepare, even when thou dost it through ourselves, working in us to will and to do the things that are right. We rejoice that thou hast also the knowledge of that which is within, and that all our hearts' necessities are open before thee, and that thou dost not sit severely judging. We rejoice that, knowing what is right and what is wrong to us, thou art not sitting stern and ascerb and unrelenting, sharply demanding exact rectitude of all thy creatures. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. Thou dost behold what might, what power, in many is working the things that are for the flesh; and thou seest how they that strive against the flesh, often strive in discouragement and defeat, frequently cast down, though not destroyed. And thou dost have compassion upon their infirmities. Yea, and thou dost have compassion upon their sins. Thou dost not wait to be gracious until they have discharged their souls of all iniquity, faithful in word and life. Thou art beforehand with kindness, and with mercy, and with gentleness, and with goodness. And it is thy gentleness, it is thy sparing mercy, it is thy longsuffering kindness, it is thine infinite patience with us that saves us. And thou art ministering, in this strife within, to that which is good. Thou art teaching us to overcome that which is bad.

We thank thee that thou hast pity upon the struggles of our souls; and that all our dim discernings of things higher and better, which come to tantalize us and then to torment us, and that all the yearnings which we have, are the Spirit striving in us, and with us, with groanings that cannot be uttered.

And so, though we cannot see thee face to face, though we know only in part, and look out upon the brilliant obscure of the other life, thou art there, and art drawing us up toward thee. How little the drops that go up by the draught of the sun know that they shall shine in the rainbow, and glow in the cloud! So thou art drawing us upward, we know not where, except that it shall be to joy and purity and dignity and glory. We do not understand these things yet, nor their meanings; but we have faith to believe that thou art sitting in an eternal Fatherhood of love, and that thy heart is full of power, and that all wisdom comes forth from it. Thou art drawing all things kindly, gently, upward to the land of blessedness; and thou wilt overcome, as with an everlasting victory, all opposition; and thou wilt banish all things from heaven that make offense and destroy with transgression. Thou wilt utterly purify the universe. Yet the day shall come when thou wilt have all things put beneath thy power. And we rejoice, though the fullness of the meaning cannot be apprehended, that we understand enough to fill us with hope and cheer. We shall be there; we shall see thee; we shall be like thee; we shall understand even as now we are understood. All uncertainty will have passed away. We shall begin the better career, having left behind tormenting passions-the body and all its infirmities and ailments; and we shall be as the angels of God. In the hope of this blessed consummation we live, and will unto the end.

Now, draw near to every one in whom thou hast implanted these desires;

to every one that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, to teach them which is the Gate Beautiful. Teach them by it to enter the temple of God. And having entered, may they abide there. Teach thou thine own to come by the way of love, in which is all light, and all strength, and all hope, and all truth, and all rectitude, and all that is divine.

And we pray that thou wilt interpret thyself more and more to thy people in the royalty of thy real and innermost life. We pray for the coming of that kingdom in which love shall be supreme. Let thy will be done upon earth as it is in heaven. We pray for the day when more and more shall seek Christ, subduing their pride, their selfishness, and their waywardness, and becoming gentle, and long-suffering, and patient, and full of disinterested kindness, as thou art. We pray that thou wilt grant that those who are thine may grow not so much in the fervor and visions and raptures of an imaginative experience, as in the reality of self-distrust and self-denial, and of doing good, and of being good that they may do good.

And we pray that thou wilt increase the power of the church by increasing the power of the faith that works by love in all its members.

We pray that thou wilt spread abroad this Gospel of purity and of rectitude, by the power of divine love in their example. Grant that if there be any seeking to live a new and better life, they may not hesitate to lay aside their sins. May they have the inspiration and power which comes from the higher life in Christ Jesus. May they learn in him what is disinterested kindness and love. And may they seek this love with all their heart and mind and soul and strength, toward God and toward man. May it be the feeling of their nature.

And we pray that thou wilt grant patience to those that are discouraged, or those that seek under great difficulties to fulfill the law of God in themselves. Even if they suffer, may they still persevere, knowing that when they have suffered awhile God will rescue them, or that he will give them grace to bear. if he take not the thorn from their side.

We pray that thou wilt bless all thy erring children wherever they are. Grant that they may be conscious that the treasure that waits for them is greater than the treasure which they seek. How much better is the house above than the houses which we build below! How much better are the friendships that bloom in immortality than those whose seeds we plant in this chilly soil of life! How much better is the glorious companionship and noble society of the blessed in heaven than that which we seek among men! Grant that we may have imperishable riches. Grant that we may have friendships that never grow dim. Grant that we may have aspirations and ambitions that shall never die, but that shall have more realization beyond the grave than they can have here.

We pray, O Lord! that thou wilt grant that this day divine truth may be ministered in us by these holy thoughts and ardent yearnings. Grant that we may this day feel ourselves drawn up toward thee. How all things are looking up to-day toward the sun, for light and for warmth! How all the fields yearn! How all the sleeping tribes, that have lain long covered down by winter, begin to solicit, and are drawn unsolicited by the bright shining of the sun! For the Spring hath come, and warmth revives, and the singing of the birds is heard again. So, O Sun of righteousness! come to our winter. So come to all our dormant thoughts and feelings in us, that they shall spring up with new growth. Make our heart the garden of the Lord. Walk thou in it. And may we meet thee unabashed and unashamed. We pray that this thy church, and all thy churches, may rejoice to-day. May thy servants be able to preach with heart, and with soul, and with hope of success. Wherever they are in the circumstances of discouragement, wherever they sow much and reap little, may they still have the con

scious presence of God, and may their faith not fail, and may they have a longer life in view than that which lies between these horizons. May they live and labor as those that expect to see another and glorious life beyond, when resurrection shall have found them, and brought them into the presence of God. And so may they endure trials and burdens, not fainting by the way, and knowing that they will reap in due season if they faint not.

We pray for feeble churches, wherever they are, throughout the length and breadth of our land. May scattered flocks be gathered together and may shepherds be found to lead them by the side of still waters.

And may intelligence prevail. May schools, and colleges, and academies, and universities, and all seminaries of learning, sacred and divine, have thy presence and guidance, that the young that are passing through them, may be sanctified, and grow up to be godly men.

And we pray that thou wilt grant thy blessing to rest upon the nations of the earth. We thank thee for coming peace. We pray that all the ravages of war may be repaired. We pray that those that sigh, and that are bereaved, and that sit in darkness, may find consolation and eomforters. May the day come when justice shall prevail; when there shall be no war; when this mighty medicine of God shall no longer be given to the nations that are sick so that they must needs drink blood. We pray thee. O Lord! that the final glory may come-the new heaven and the new earth in which dwell righteousness. And to thy name shall be the praise, Father, Son, and Spirit, evermore. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON.

Wilt thou follow with thy blessing, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, the word of truth and of exhortation which has been spoken. Fill our hearts with supreme beneficence. May it grow in us. And as from the ripening tree fall, even in the silence of the summer night, the fruits that are waiting for the comer, so from our unconscious thought and our unconscious feeling, may there drop down perpetually blossom and fruit of all goodness and love. Grant, we pray thee, that we may seek more and more the mind and will that are in Christ. And, may that Spirit which is in the Father, and which brought him from the throne to the bottom of human life, and which led him to love the unlovely, and to die for his enemies, and to return to his glory above, and live for the good of men-grant that it may be in us. And may we remember that if a man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his. And finally may we be brought where we shall need no more exhortation, and shall be like thee, and shall shine in the luminousness of an endless life. And to thy name shall be the praise, Father, Son, and Spirit. Amen.

THE LIBERTY OF THE GOSPEL.

I propose to comment upon the history contained in the 21st chapter of the Book of Acts, beginning with the 15th, and ending with the 26th verse.

"And after those days we took up our carriages, and went to Jerusalem. There went with us also certain other disciples of Cæsarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge. And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following Paul went with us unto James; and all the elders were present. And when he had saluted them, he declared partciularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry." I can scarcely understand why the salutation should have been mentioned, unless Paul's habit was that of an especially perfect gentleman. He went to Jerusalem, and was received into a company of prominent Christians; and there must have been something very affectionate in the mode of salutation which he bestowed on them, or he could hardly have made such an impression as is indicated by the record.

"When he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry."

This was a conference-meeting at which one might well have desired to be present. Even for the least disciple who has been active in any good word or work, there is always a willing ear and a ready heart. But to have heard Paul-a man of such universal nature in spiritual directions; a man who had traversed every region, almost, of the then civilized world; a man who had a breadth of experience such as, perhaps, can never fall to the lot of any other man-to have heard him give some account of his own personal history, was a privilege devoutly to be wished for.

I remember very well to have heard Mr. Nettleton, when he used to return from his tours of revival labors to the old house of my father in Litchfield, recount the scenes of the revivals which he had

gone through in Danbury, or Woodbury, or wherever he had been working; and certainly, even to me, a little child, they were golden hours; and to my father and to him they were hours of triumph beyond the ordinary experiences of men in the flesh. But what were these as compared with the hours spent in an assembly

SUNDAY MORNING, Mar. 19, 1871. LESSON: ACTS XV. 1-33. HYMNS (Plymouth Collection): Nos. 40, 688, 1262.