city, and Joseph and Mary to theirs, and a prophecy is thus fulfilled: "Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel." Cæsar thought only of taxes: an unseen but directing hand made unconscious Cæsar to fulfil prophecy. The crown was not on Cæsar's head, but on Christ's. A highly educated Pharisee goes on a journey to Damascus, full of hatred to the name and people of Christ: a voice from Him who wears the crown pierces his heart, and the bitter Pharisee is transformed into the faithful preacher of the cross. Domitian gratified his vengeance by banishing John to Patmos; and Christ glorifies his own name by making that exile a chosen instrument of imperishable good to all generations. Cæsar's prisoner is made Christ's prophet, and the wrath of man is diverted to add new force to the cause of God, and kings guided to promote the very ends for the extinction of which they combined their crowns. Luther is sent to a convent to do penance, and he finds the Bible. Printing was invented to do man's work, and it fulfils the purposes of God. America was discovered to add to man's empire, and it becomes more and more a province of Christ's. Steam was used on man's mission; it is already out on God's errands. Thus infinite wisdom, love, and power, combined in Christ, wears this crown, and wields this sceptre, and makes all work together for good to the people of God, and toward the spread and permanency of the principles of the glorious gospel.

Christ also wears the crown of grace and glory, as well as that of creation and providence. He is "Prince of life," "King of kings," "Lord of glory," the true Melchizedec-David and Solomon in one. Such he was acknowledged to be in the cradle and on the cross, and such he justly and truly assumed to be at every period of his suffering life. His words were king's words. Royalty was heard in his language and embodied in his life.

This kingdom, the kingdom of grace, is a spiritual one-its laws, its sceptre, its weapons, and its warfare, are all spiritual. It is "not meat nor drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost"-it is not an antithesis to any temporal government, but to spiritual corruption.

Its subjects are regenerated men, and these only. The bap

tized, as such, are members of the visible, but not therefore members of the spiritual church. In one sense, all creatures are under his sway, and those who will not give him glory as an offering, must surrender it as a reluctant sacrifice; but the subjects of this spiritual kingdom are willing subjects-their hearts throb with. loyalty and love to their King. The ambassadors and ministers in the midst of it are purely spiritual men; they have no sovereign power; they may no more assume Christ's crown than may kings and statesmen-their office is pastoral, not royal-they are to feed, not to lord it over Christ's heritage. The tendency in the eighteenth century was to transfer Christ's crown to the state.

As King of grace, Christ reclaims the aliens, and strangers, and slaves of sin and Satan to himself; he subdues a people to his glorious purpose-he makes them willing in the day of his power-attracting by his cross, inclining by his love, and compelling by his Spirit.

He rules them by his word. It supersedes all the traditions and commandments of men. Our directory, as the subjects of Christ, is not the opinion of the wisest, or the tradition of the oldest, or the voice of the most, or the judgment of the best; it is the word of God alone. What it enjoins, is duty; what it forbids, is sin: it is our Magna Charta. As wearing the crown of this kingdom, the Lord Jesus furnishes his church with ministers, and appoints the ordinances requisite for the church's progress. He has said, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;" and, in the strength of this commission, the glorious gospel has been proclaimed from year to year, and from country to country. "This do in remembrance of me," is our sacramental warrant till he shall come. On the baptismal font, on the communion table, is the impress of royal authority. We meet together, we pray together, we communicate, in obedience to Christ the King. No voice in purely spiritual things has force but his. It is as a king also he sends down his Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is the gift of the throne. The Spirit is his only vicar on earth.

It is under his crown that his kingdom makes way. The stone cut out without hands shall fill the earth. "In those days the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall break in pieces

and consume all other kingdoms, and stand for ever." All things are contributing toward this great result; a thousand Baptists prepare the way for his advent, and nations rush into revolutions, and kings, alarmed, abdicate their thrones, and mobs rise in volcanic force against lawful powers, unconsciously to make way for his coming, and to lay down the rails along which the chariot of his glory shall move more rapidly to its goal. All progress in the past of pure and apostolical religion is the result of the royal influence of the Prince of life. A king must be with the church as truly as a priest in the church. His crown is as essential to the maintenance and expansion of truth, as his cross was and is to the salvation of souls. "Jesus died" is the life of the church. "Jesus reigns" is her strength and her hope. Our footing is on his sacrifice; our hope is on his crown. The creation of life comes from the one, the continuance of life flows evermore from the other; we must accept both, in order to accept in all his offices the glorious Lord who carried the one and wears the other.

Christ, as thus crowned, defends us. Sin has a footing within us; Satan rages without; the world, like an encompassing atmosphere, penetrates all the recesses of the heart: and these hostile forces are in action by night and by day, and, had we not a defender in Christ mightier than all that can be against us, we should perish from the earth. He tells us from his throne, "I give unto them eternal life, and none shall be able to pluck them out of my hand." Against the kingdom, crown, and sovereignty of Christ, every corrupt system of Christianity has ceaselessly warred.

The Gnostic heresy, under the guise of rigid self-denial and frenzied superiority to the senses, introduced deadly poison into the visible church. The lofty speculations of the Platonists undermined the faith and puffed up the intellects of many; and artfully combining both with other carnal and Satanic elements, the Papacy set itself up, really a kingdom, against the kingdom of Christ, though ostensibly its full and logical development. What skill is displayed in that wonderful structure! what grasp of thought! what cunning recognition of Christ as king, and yet practical dethronization of him! How truly is Judas out-Judased in the pope! How thoroughly combined the cunning of Satan

and the carnality of man! It retains every doctrine of the gospel only to subvert it; it keeps the name only to cover its hostility to the cause of Christ. "God is love;" and under this glorious banner it has built inquisitions, evangelized with the sword, and deluged the earth with blood. "God is light;" and under the beams of this it has hallowed ignorance as the mother of devotion. "My kingdom is not of this world ;" and with these words sounding in her ears she has built up an ecclesiastical despotism—a pyramid of power and grandeur—a throne of pride, on which she sits as a queen, and says, "I shall see no sorrow."

So many and so ceaseless forces have conspired against the kingdom of Christ, that we are constrained to infer that the existence of a church on earth is the result of the sovereignty of Christ. The spiritual church survives, a spark on the sea, a flower amid frosts, an exotic in an alien soil. Had it been human, it had perished long ago. Its existence is its eloquent ascription, "Thou art the King of glory, O Christ."

From the experience of the past, as well as from the promises of Scripture, we gather the assurance of the safety of the people of God.

Their palladium is not the shadow of a throne; their shield is neither their own riches nor the state's endowments. Their shield is Christ on his throne, their girdle is the everlasting arms, their glory their Redeemer's crown. Dynasties change, and empires ebb, and races die, and kings oppose, and enslave, and protect the visible church; but Christians live, and love, and flourish.

The prosperity of the church is not what the world calls so— numbers, wealth, extension-but increase of spirituality and love, new and noble victories over sin, greater sacrifices for Christ's sake, yet more fearless recognition of his name and assertion of his truth. The church of God is often most prosperous when she has least in her coffers, fewest in her temples, and nothing but hostility in the world.

We are sure of the ultimate triumphs of the church of Christ, just because on his head are many crowns. Greater is he that is for us than all that can be against us; the predictions of its success are as sure as if already turned to performances. All forces

shall aid his cause, all tongues shall praise him, every hill-top and every hidden valley shall shine in the lustre of his crown. To achieve this, the ministers of Christ need not call in the militia of Cæsar, a bishop need not assume the command of a battalion of infantry, nor a cardinal charge at the head of a company of dragoons. Christ repudiates as auxiliaries alike the bribe of the treasury, the bayonet of the army, and the craft and subtlety of the world. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Are you subjects of Christ? Are you Christ's? Is he yours?

Spirit, saith the Lord." believers in him?

SECOND SERIES.

Are you

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