Peter's case. He did not cast him off because of this, but appeared to him first. Peter's case is an example to us with regard to all such as have been turned out of the way! Pray, run, plant the standard, invite the fugitive to rally round it: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

But again, how else can you prove yourselves the disciples of Christ? The grand motive to Christian benevolence is, Christ died for me-the conviction that I was a sinner. He first loved me; this is the strongest motive—and this is the rule by which he will judge the world: "I was an hungered," &c. O! how strong was this principle among the first disciples, that even Pliny could give no more striking account of this sect of the Nazarenes than this, that "They loved each other," &c., &c.

It might be shown that this law is practicable by St. Paul's example. He mourned with his brethren-was jealous over them willing to bear bonds. Fornicator, &c. Thus we give evidence that we are not Antinomians, though we have become followers of Christ.

Apply. Visit the sick, &c.

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SERMON XLIV.

MESSIAH'S PEACEFUL REIGN.

A MISSIONARY DISCourse.

Isaiah, xi., 9.—They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

WHO would not desire it? Who would not pray, "O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles." Do we imagine that this world is to be ever the seat of fraud and violence-always a moral chaos, &c. *** and that no Almighty Spirit will ever brood over the deep abyss-no voice, "Let there be light!" No atmosphere of love

stretched over it? Will the Almighty never again say "All is good?" Revelation brings the prospect near, when we ascend the hill and see all subjected to Jesus. The whole passage before us shows it. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." Then what a change produced.-"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." How is the prophets harp strung to heavenly strains! God's will shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven!

I. Contemplate the pacific spirit that shall be in the world in Messiah's reign.

II. The cause of its universal prevalence.

I. The pacific spirit, &c.

It refers to this period; and when all the Messiah's mediatorial purposes are finished it shall take place in its fulness. Where? In all his holy mountain. The figure has allusion to Sinai. Zion under the Gospel is Sinai under the law

God's universal Church-" holy mountain," to show the purity, &c. See what the prophet says in chapter ii.: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Now, it is in the Church of God that this prediction is to be accomplished-and it shall be extended over all the earth. Now, the effect of this will be, "They shall neither hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain."-This prediction shall be accomplished when,

1. There are no mutual antipathies. How is it that man is a wolf to man?-this was not so from the beginning-sin! -this is the cause; and hence man's history is always one of mourning, and lamentation, and wo!-See it in domestic -national, &c.-When man became the enemy of God he became the enemy of himself; and it is only by restoring him that the basis for fellowship between man and man will be

* Human laws may bind and assist, but the enmity can only be effectually subdued by the grace of the Gospel. *** Civilization follows Christianity. * * * Antipathies arise from the opposing passions of human nature and the various standards of morals and opinions.-But when the Gospel is universal, "they shall neither hurt nor destroy." ***The passions shall be restrained and governed by the Gospel, and the laws of civil society in accordance with this ✶✶✶ and "their kings shall be nursing fathers, and their queens shall be nursing mothers." All erroneous principles shall be then suppressed, not by force, but by the outpouring of the Spirit; and then our Lord's prayer will be answered-"we all one."

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2. It shall be displayed in the activity of genuine benevolence. Religion is love; its origin was love!—the love of God!" he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." It was prominent in Christ; and what was his last commandment? "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”—and all the doctrines of his religion tend to it. How active, then, should the benevolence of the Gospel be!

3. This spirit will show itself in true Christian fellowship. See the end of the second chapter of Acts: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart"-the love of God the basis-earth the emblem of Heaven! Then, indeed, may we say, in the glowing language of an apostle, "But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."

Your Church, then, is founded for this purpose. Figure to yourself a village-the Lord's !-the town catches the flame, &c. * * * Well, this shall be so: "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."-The revolution will be as great as the lion lying down with the lamb. It must, then, be effected by a change of nature" new creatures."

II. We notice the cause of the universal prevalence of the pacific spirit. Why do we believe it? "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it"-"The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord." But let us notice,

1. The knowledge with which the world shall be filled.

Every kind of knowledge has not this effect. The philosopher has a right to talk-for knowledge is power-but the knowledge of literature and the arts will not change the antipathies of man; it will not eradicate the ravenous nature. "The knowledge of the Lord" can alone do this-the character of Jesus-the mind of Christ.-We have known learned men, yet ferocious (Tschoop); but "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."

2. See the tendency of this knowledge to produce such results we argue it from three topics:

First. It is the knowledge attained from Divine revelation: "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."-It is quite natural for it to accomplish this.

Secondly. It is God's instrument-He makes it the power unto salvation. Not that in itself it is so, but from actual results; it has been his power to salvation.

Thirdly. The certainty of universal diffusion. This we could only know by revelation; for though we might argue by the kind of means, yet, as these are only his revelations, the end is also necessary to be revealed. "There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon; and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth"-" The kingdom of heaven is as a grain of mustard-seed, which is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."

We rest our hopes, then, of this on the promises made to the fathers, &c., and on the promised agency of the Holy Spirit. *

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Its important relation to us. *** Have you obeyed