mingle so often with the funeral knell that we are disposed to carve them on the cypress-tree rather than on the palm-"I am the resurrection and the life," form the chorus of that noble anthem, which those for whom Christ "died and rose and revived"1 shall chant as they march from judgment to glory.

We add nothing more. We show you the privileges of the righteous. We tell you that if you would die their death, you must live their life. And, conjuring you, by the memory of those who have gone hence in the faith of the Redeemer, that ye "run with patience the race set before you,' " 2 we send you to your homes with the comforting words which succeed our text, "He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die believest thou this?" God forbid there should be one of you refusing to answer with Martha, "Yea, Lord, yea."

SERMON VI

THE POWER OF WICKEDNESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO REPRODUCE THEMSELVES

"For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”— GAL. vi. 7.

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You may be all aware that what is termed the argufrom analogy has been carried out to great

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length by thinking men, and that much of the strongest witness for Christianity has been won on this field of investigation. It is altogether a most curious and profitable inquiry, which sets itself to the tracing out resemblances between natural and spiritual things, and which thus proposes to establish, at the least, a probability that creation and Christianity have one and the same author. we think that we shall not overstep the limits of truth, if we declare that nature wears the appearance of having been actually designed for the illustration of the Bible. We believe that he who, with a devout mind, searches most diligently into the beauties and mysteries of the material world, will find himself met constantly by exhibitions, which seem to him the pages of Scripture written in the stars, and the forests, and the waters, of this creation. There is such a sameness of dealing characteristic of the

natural and the spiritual, that the Bible may be read in the outspread of the landscape, and the operations of agriculture: whilst, conversely, the laws obeyed by this earth and its productions may be traced as pervading the appointments of revelation. It were beside our purpose to go at length into demonstration of this coincidence. But you may all perceive, assuming its existence, that the furnished argument is clear and convincing. If there run the same principle through natural and spiritual things, through the book of nature and the Bible, we vindicate the same authorship to both, and prove, with an almost geometric precision, that the God of creation is also the God of Christianity. I look on the natural firmament with its glorious inlay of stars; and it is unto me as the breastplate of the great high priest, "ardent with gems oracular," from which, as from the Urim and Thummim on Aaron's ephod, come messages full of divinity. And when I turn to the page of Scripture, and perceive the nicest resemblance between the characters in which this page is written, and those which glitter before me on the crowded concave, I feel that, in trusting myself to the declarations of the Bible, I cling to Him who speaks to me from every point, and by every splendour, of the visible universe, whose voice is in the marchings of planets, and the rushing of whose melodies is in the wings of the daylight.

But though we go not into the general inquiry, we take one great principle, the principle of a resurrection, and we affirm, in illustration of what has been advanced, that it runs alike through God's natural and spiritual dealings. Just as God hath appointed that man's body, after mouldering away, shall come forth quickened and renewed, so has He ordained that the seed, after corrupting in the ground, shall yield a harvest of the like kind with itself. It is,

moreover, God's ordinary course to allow an apparent destruction as preparatory, or introductory, to complete success or renovation. He does not permit the springing up, until there has been, on human calculation, a thorough withering away. So that the maxim might be shown to hold universally good, "that which Thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." We may observe yet further, that, as with the husbandman, if he sow the corn, he shall reap the corn, and if he sow the weed, he shall reap the weed; thus with myself as a responsible agent, if I sow the corruptible I shall reap the corruptible, and if I sow the imperishable I shall reap the imperishable. The seed reproduces itself. This is the fact, in reference to spiritual things, on which we would fasten your attention; "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Now we are all, to a certain extent, familiar with this principle; for it is forced on our notice by everyday Occurrences. We observe that a dissolute and reckless youth is ordinarily followed by a premature and miserable old age. We see that honesty and industry win commonly comfort and respect; and that, on the contrary, levity and a want of carefulness produce pauperism and disrepute. And yet further, unless we go over to the ranks of infidelity, we cannot question that a course, of disobedience to God is earning man's eternal destruction; whilst, through submission to the revealed will of His Maker, there is secured admittance into a glorious heritage. We are thus aware that there runs through the Creator's dealings with our race the principle of an identity, or sameness, between the things which man sows and those which he reaps. But we think it possible that we may have contented ourselves with too superficial a view of this principle; and that, 1 1 Cor. xv. 36.

through not searching into what may be termed its philosophy, we allow much that is important to elude observation. The seed sown in the earth goes on, as it were, by a sort of natural process, and without direct interference from God, to yield seed of the same description with itself. And we wish it well observed, whether there be not in spiritual things an analogy the most perfect to what thus takes place in natural. We think that, upon a careful examination, you will find groundwork of belief that the simile holds good in every possible respect: so that what a man sows, if left to its own vegetating powers, will yield naturally a harvest of its own kind and description.

We shall study to establish this point in regard, first, to the present scene of probation; and, secondly, to the future scene of recompense.

We begin with the present scene of probation, and will put you in possession of the exact point to be made out, by referring you to the instance of Pharaoh. We know that whilst God was acting on the Egyptians by the awful apparatus of plague and prodigy, He is often said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that the monarch refused to let Israel go. And it is a great question to decide, whether God actually interfered to strengthen and confirm the obstinacy of Pharaoh, or only left the king to the workings of his own heart, as knowing that one degree of unbelief would generate another and a stauncher. It seems to us at variance with all that is revealed of the Creator, to suppose him urging on the wicked in his wickedness, or bringing any engine to bear on the ungodly which shall make them more desperate in rebellion. God willeth not the death of any sinner. And though after long striving with an individual, after plying him with the various excitements which are best calculated to stir a rational, and