THE NIGHT AND THE DAY:

A MISSIONARY DISCOURSE.

ROMANS Xiii. 12.

The Night is far spent, the Day is at hand.

THE metaphors used in holy Scripture are generally of the simplest and plainest description. Spiritual things are illustrated, by similies borrowed from common life and daily observation; such as all may understand, such that he who runs may read. Thus is it evident the Divine Oracles were not designed for the exclusive use and benefit of the learned and accomplished, but were intended for the instruction and salvation of all classes of persons; that each, in his own language, might hear the won

derful works of God; that all, in their several stations and situations, might "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them," that so, by patience and comfort of the Scriptures, they might obtain, and ever hold fast, that blessed hope of everlasting life, which is given in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

The passage now under consideration may, with propriety, be said to contain one of the boldest metaphors in the whole circle of Revealed Truth. This life, with all its concerns and employments, is called the Night;-the life to come is called the Day. Time, which we generally think of as the Day, is here termed the Night; and Eternity, which we regard as the Night, is here asserted to be the Day.

What a change does the book of Revelation, received into the heart in its purity and power, produce in our views of ourselves, and of the world around us! The man who cordially believes that book, will disbelieve all who dare to contradict the least of its assertions. The generality of his fellow-creatures are "men of Time,"

but he is "a man of Eternity." Such a man has his Night on Earth, and his Day in Heaven. And what a day!--a day that shall never terminate ;-a day of perfect. knowledge, and of perfect love;--a day that shall not be darkened by sorrow, or tarnished by sin;-a day of meridian glory, and unsullied purity, and. ineffable blessedness; a day that shall be succeeded by no night; for there shall be no night there; for they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever.

But it is not to the various bearings of this passage as connected with Christian experience, that I purpose now to direct your attention it is to another view of it that I am anxious to bend your notice. Regard it, then, my brethren, not merely as the assurance of future blessedness, but as the call to present duty. Behold the darker side of the subject, as connected with the ignorance and misery of our apostate world; as well as the brighter side, which relates to your own happy experience and joyful hopes. Consider it not only

as the prophetic trumpet, foretelling the future rest and glory of the Church; but regard it as calling the soldiers of the Cross to arms! Bidding them to be equipped for the warfare, and to rush into the field, there "to fight manfully, under Christ's banner, against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and to continue his faithful soldiers and servants unto their life's end." Nor can there be a greater encouragement to laborious exertion, to fervent prayer, to noble enterprise, and to persevering diligence in the grand and holy work of Missions, than the consideration that the Night is far spent, and that the Day is at hand.

I am justified in this use and application of the passage before us, in the view taken of it by an able commentator, whose learning and critical skill have long been acknowledged in our Established Church. He thus paraphrases the text:-"The night (of heathen ignorance) is far spent, the day (of grace and salvation to them) is at hand*."-Join with me, then, in your prayers

* Dr. Whitby in loco.

to the throne of Mercy, for the influence and grace of the Eternal Spirit, that we may not only "perceive and know what things we ought to do," in that mighty struggle which is now carrying on between the powers of darkness and the children of light; but also "that we may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same," however painful, however arduous, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In considering this subject our divisions are obvious and simple,-the NIGHT, and the DAY.

I. THE NIGHT.

In unfolding to view this moral night, let me first direct your attention to

1. Its commencement.-There was a time when man was happy, because he was holy. Blessed with his Maker's smile, and favoured with familiar converse with the Deity, as yet all was day, all was peace, and all was glory. From what dire occurrence, then, shall we date the commencement of that moral night which has since ensued? I answer, From that awful