What a scene is this that has past under review! In its light how mean do man's highest dignities and honours appear! How ineffably paltry the pageantry of courts, how empty the pretensions of sovereigns! How solemn is life, in all its stages, relations, and aspects! God help us to live in the light of "that day!

SUBJECT:-Balaam; or, Spiritual Influence-Human and Divine.

"And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they. And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak, the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me; for I will promote thee," &c.-Num. xxii. 15-18.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Forty-second.

THE history of Balaam, as detailed in this and the foregoing verses, furnishes us with some striking and suggestive views of the all-important doctrine of spiritual influence. The text contains two ideas touching this subject; and the whole history of this extraordinary man will illustrate them.

I. THE INFLUENCE OF A BAD MAN UPON SOCIETY. The impious pretensions of the man to supernatural endowments —his avocation, as a professed enchanter-obtaining his livelihood by imposing upon the credulity of society-and the description which Peter has given of him, as one "who loved the wages of unrighteousness," are obviously sufficient to warrant us in regarding him as a bad man: —a man whose heart was not right in the sight of God. Now, mark the influence of this bad man upon the mind of his age; "And Balak yet sent princes, more, and more honourable." Kings and nations stand as spiritual serfs before him, tremulous and suppliant; he seems to hold their heart-reins within his magic grasp; the Moabites and Mi

dianites, with their rulers, bowed with more reverent prostration before his mystic wand, than to any imperial sceptre.*

The influence of a bad man upon society, shows three things:

First That a man's influence in this world is no proof of his moral worth. I think that the amount of a man's influence in society should always be measured by his spiritual excellence, intellectual and moral. It is unquestionably so in heaven, and wherever else moral society is in its normal and healthy state. The influence of a corrupt spirit, in a circle thoroughly intelligent and good, would only be as the smoke of a taper upon the azure of a bright summer's morn. But in this world, some-how or other, your Balaams, your men who love most the ways of unrighteousness,—your great showy, mouthy, arrogant, pretenders, do, in church and state, and almost in every profession, obtain the most influence. The millions of all ages readily accede to the claims of the pretender, however lofty;-and the more lofty the better, if the claimant can manage to keep his countenance while the admiring dupes look on.

The influence of a bad man upon society shows

* A striking illustration of the extent and supremacy of his influence, you have in the former verses of this chapter. The Israelites, in pursuing their journey toward Canaan, pitch their tents in the land of Moab, a district, it would seem, the most fertile and lovely in the regions of Arabia. The natives are struck with alarm at the teeming numbers of a people, concerning whom, probably, they had been recently hearing of triumphant achievements, and stupendous miracles. Fearing, lest they should fall victims to such a formidable power, they send for the Midianites, a neighbouring nation, who shared in the panic of the hour, adopted an expedient which showed the transcendent influence which Balaam had obtained over their minds. The two nations, instead of organizing armies to meet the exigences of the case, despatched a deputation to Balaam with "the rewards of divination in their hands," in order to enlist his help as a mighty enchanter. The first deputation was unsuccessful; another trial is made. Balak sends out to him "princes, more, and more honourable than they," with greater offerings still. (chap. xxii.

1-19.

Secondly: That society, in relation to true intelligence and right sympathy, is in a very lamentable state. What gave Balaam this influence? The ignorance and superstitious feelings of the men of Moab and Midian. Had these men's minds been instructed in the great laws of nature and God-had the eye of thought, and the sharper and farther-seeing eye of true moral feeling, been opened and brightened within them by a right education, they would have despised and denounced, as an impious impostor, the man they now worshipped and propitiated as a God. A true education—an education involving the harmonious unfolding of the feeling, as well as knowing faculties, of the soul, will make man a "discerner of spirits,"-enable him to see degradation under the gorgeous garb of emperors, and iniquity under the sacerdotal robes of reverend Fathers in God. Your Balaams cannot live under the ever-brightening heavens before the ever-quickening eye of a well educated people. The intellectual rabble will always have their Balaams-they like to be fooled.

The influence of a bad man upon society shows

Thirdly: The high probability of a future retributive economy. Every country and every age, have had their Balaams ;-men who, by the assumption of a wondrous superiority over their contemporaries, and by fraudulent dealings, have extorted immense revenues from the hard earnings of poverty, and unbounded honors and applause from the serf-minded, the credulous, and superstitious. Shall these craft-victim millions of all generations have no redress for ever? Are the Balaams to meet with no retribution in the future? Does not the mutual relation between empty pretenders and the ignorant victims of all ages predict a reckoning day, and cry out for a judgment? I think so. We have in the text

II. THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREAT GOD UPON A BAD MAN. "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold,

I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind." Now, you observe, that this conviction he expresses of his impotency to do anything without God's help, was fully realized in the history of his efforts.*

* Stimulated by the appeal which Balak had addressed to his avarice, he makes the attempt. "And Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab." &c. (21-34.) This passage informs us, that on the way the ass is frightened by some strange object which appears before its vision, it refuses to go on, it turns aside into another road, it presses close against the wall or hedge, and then lies down. Balaam, enraged with the affrighted animal, smites it with his "staff"; for he seems determined to go on, though he knows that it is contrary to the express will of heaven and the monitions of his own conscience. The ass speaks and rebukes him; the angel of the Lord appears to him "with a sword drawn in his hand," and says, "Wherefore has thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee because thy way is perverse before me," &c. Balaam is by this extraordinary interposition brought to a temporary sense of his sin; whereupon he receives authority to go on with the princes of Balak, with a prohibition at the same time to utter no word, but that which the "angel of the Lord" should give him. (21-35.) He accordingly proceeds on his journey; he meets with Balak, who presents him with "oxen and sheep," takes him up into the "high places of Baal, where he might command a view of the utmost part of the people,”-the Hebrews, whom he was required to curse. Here, according to Balaam's request, altars were built and sacrifices were offered. Balak fully hoped that the mighty enchanter would soon hurl his thunders of anathema upon the people encamped on the plains below; and Balaam, unquestionably, again intended to do so. But lo! the hand of God was on him, and instead of cursing, he blesses, in strains of lofty poetry. "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?" &c. (xxiii. 8-10.) Balak is sadly disappointed, and another effort to curse the chosen people is made. Balaam is conducted by the monarch to Pisgah ; altars are built and sacrifices are offered there. All is ready. The monarch now expects every moment to hear the curses fulminate from the lips of Balaam; and he too, intends: but the hand of God is on his spirit still, and sweet and precious words flow from his lips concerning the character, privileges, and destiny of Israel. (xxiii. 10-24.) Balak resigns all hope of ruining Israel; all that he entreats now is, that Balaam shall be neutral in the matter. For this pur

In relation to this part of our subject, we wish you to observe three things:

First: That God does exert a spiritual influence over the minds of bad men. Popular theology would give one to understand that divine influence is limited only to the church, that the spirit of God has to do only with the true disciples of Jesus. But reason, history, and the Bible, show that he operates by his spirit upon the hearts of unconverted men. He has access to all souls-he turns the hearts of wicked men as rivers are turned. He strove with the old world; and ever since the days of Christ, has he sought to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. We observe

Secondly: That the spiritual influence he exerts over the minds of bad men is of a restraining character. He restrained Balaam, now, from doing what his avarice stimulated him to desire, by external difficulties:—there were the angel with a drawn sword in his hand, the rebuke of the ass, and an inward pressure upon his spirit. "All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do." It is in some such way God restrains wicked men now. He puts some external circumstances in their way, or some deep impression on their spirits. Thus he holds them back. This restraint which God puts upon a sinner is incompatible with two things (1.) True liberty. We talk eloquently about liberty, and struggle for it through difficulties and through perils; but few of us understand what it is; and fewer still possess it. True liberty, in its widest sense, consists in power to accomplish every volition. The great Creator seems to have given to all creatures a capacity equal to the demands of their instincts-and in this is their liberty. The little bird has no desire to execute the feats of the

pose he is brought to "the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon;" here altars are built and sacrifices offered as before. The expectation only is, now, that Balaam shall be neutral-that he shall not bless, if he does not curse. But words of blessing flow involuntarily again from his mouth. "How goodly are thy tents," &c. (xxiv. 5-9.)