breath. "The sound is gone forth into all the earth, and the words unto the ends of the world:" let them find a hearing ear, and a patient, understanding heart, among ourselves; lest the poor heathens, who hitherto have not known God, rise up in the judgment to condemn us. We cannot too highly magnify our office: it is with fear and trembling that we speak the words, for they strike with tenfold force and awe upon our own hearts; but we must not be backward to magnify that office which the Son of God was pleased to bear; which he now executes in the fulness of the power given to him in heaven and earth, and with which he has invested those, unworthy as they are in themselves, who have been called to it. We stand ministering in his name; we are ambassadors for him, and pray you in Christ's stead; we are preachers and publishers of his Gospel, heralds to announce his coming. And if it seem a light thing to you, that we are men like yourselves, perhaps less richly endowed with natural gifts, and whose hearts are assuredly neither purified, nor sanctified, nor filled with heavenly things, as theirs should be who stand continually in the holy place; yet be thankful for that great goodness, which, as it permits us to see, as in a glass darkly, the things which our eyes could not

endure to look upon in their brightness; so it makes known, by feeble instruments, those truths, which, if delivered by a heavenly messenger, and in all their fulness of terror and of love, might confound the meek and gentle spirit, and would certainly bring heavier condemnation upon the proud and unbelieving. But there shall be a day when the Lord Jesus shall himself be revealed from heaven with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. And "who shall abide the day of his coming? or who shall stand when he appeareth?" Yes: when "God shall arise to judgment, he shall save all the meek upon earth;" and "they shall be refreshed with the multitude of peace."

SERMON VI.

STEWARDS OF MYSTERIES.

1 COR. iv. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

WE have here two characters, describing the nature of the office which the apostles received from Christ, and transmitted to those who succeeded them. The former has already occupied our best attention. That of Stewards, which now comes before us, shows us to be serving under Christ, who, as Son, is Head over the Church, the family of God; and our being placed over those who through his abundant grace are admitted into it. The Church is the household of God; and is the pattern and emblem of every wellordered family. Jesus Christ has rule over it, "as a Son;" therein far excelling Moses, and all who have gone before or followed him, however distinguished in their generations, and serving faithfully in that portion which he entrusted to them; as Moses was faithful as a servant over his house." "But Christ, as a Son, over his own house," which he hath " builded," as our apostle saith, for himself; being Head over "the

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whole family in heaven and earth," which "is named from him."

Now, as in the families around us, so in this 'of which we speak, which is not of this world, there must be some appointed "to give to every one his meat in due season." In one sense, indeed, it is a high and noble thought-all mankind are stewards. "We are God's stewards all, nought of our own we have." Whatever we possess is a loan from God, placed in our hands, to be used and improved; used profitably and well, for the promoting of the glory of the Great Giver, and the good of his creatures. And thus St. Peter, in exhorting to the exercise of charity and hospitality, looking to "the end of all things," and the giving account to Him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead," says, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God: if any. man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it, as of the ability that God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ." especially, who are placed in any situation conferring authority, or the means of doing good, must. regard themselves as dispensers of God's bounty. It is an honourable office, and must be highly

Those,

esteemed. It confers a dignity upon earthly things, and which, being earthly, would in themselves be poor and low, however magnified and exalted in the eyes of vain men. "No man,"

indeed, "liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself." But the more freely or largely any one hath received, the greater should be his sense of the responsibility laid upon him, and his care to distribute the gift placed in his hands, not according to his own will, but so as may best conduce to the glory of the great Giver, and the good of those who depend upon him. In regard of spiritual things this is still more necessary to be diligently and piously observed. For these concern the immortal soul, not the perishing body; and a fault committed here may extend in its consequences far beyond any single individual; a want of instruction, or an unsound principle, may be the ruin of many souls. It is an awful charge, therefore, that of being steward of the mysteries of God.

There is something of awe, methinks, in this very expression, "the mysteries of God." A mystery is a hidden thing. The term does not necessarily imply that it is unintelligible; that may or may not be the case; but it is that which a man could not discover by himself, and which it has pleased God to conceal, till the time should come when he would see fit to make it known.