SERMON I.

THE CHRISTIAN MISSION.*

LUKE iv. 18, 19.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,and recover. ing of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'

There is not an element or an object in material nature-there is not a science or an art-there is not an event in history, or a condition of society-there is not an intellect, or a faculty of intelligence, but what may be regarded as having a mission, and a divine mission too, for the accomplishment of some portion of the all-comprehensive plan of Providence. God maketh the winds his messengers, and the flames of fire his ministers. It is the highest and happiest state of an intelligent being to know whereunto he is sent, and to fulfil his mission with his might. To estimate with accuracy the position which we occupy in the world; the manner and degree in which it may be improved; and the good which in it we may realize for ourselves and others; this is to have the fair

*Preached on the re-opening of Finsbury Chapel, after repairs, November 18, 1832.

est prospect of answering the design of our existence, and becoming the authors and the possessors of the largest measure of enjoyment. This is what the text shows us Christ did. He knew why he came into the world: the end and the means were distinctly before him; and so he ran his appointed course, bore his cross and gained his crown.

There is much confusion in the minds of many persons about both miracles and missions. An undue importance has been attached to the difference between what is called natural, and what we term supernatural. The great question is, has the world a plan? Had it an author? Is there a God, whose power is resistless, and whose agency is universal? If there be, the importance of that difference is much diminished, or rather, the nature of that difference is more distinctly ascertained. The reluctance of some to admit such a thing as a miracle, and the horror of others at those who doubt miracles, are alike exaggerated. They both seem to ascribe an independent and inherent force to the laws of nature. That expression continually misleads. With the admission of a providential plan, the phrase law of nature can only mean, the uniformity of exertion of the Divine agency. The supernatural is, then, distinquished from the natural, not by its greater difficulty of accomplishment, but simply by its rareness. The natural and the supernatural are alike God's acts, only the one is common, the other uncommon; but both rational and credible; as both may be portions of a common plan, directed to a common object. It is a bad definition of a miracle, that it violates a law

of nature. What we call laws of nature, are of different orders in an ascending scale, and each is liable to an apparent suspension, by the interposition of that which is above it. The principles of mechanical action are often suspended by coming into contact with those of chemical combination, as those of chemical combination are, where the principle of vitality is introduced. There is yet a higher set of laws, those of mind, interfering with and modifying all below; and above these, in the universal plan, are moral principles, which may necessitate still more comprehensive and striking deviations, but which equally claim to be included in that great code which shall comprise the laws of nature. In this view resurrection may be as much in the order of nature, and be as improperly called, the violation of a law, as birth or death, or even the commonest instance of cause and effect in a mechanical operation. Could all the miracles of the Old and the New Testament be accounted for naturally, i. e., could they be assigned to a lower class of the laws of nature, rather than to the highest, they would still demonstrate plan, divine plan; and it would, therefore, still be true that Moses had his mission to deliver Israel, and Christ to redeem the world. The plan, the specified work, the selected and prepared agent, these demonstrate the mission.

It might be supernaturally that Christ knew that God sent him; but this prevents not our reasoning upon his mission; and from that to the mission of others. We do not thereby lose the application of his example. As he knew, others may also know,

that God has allotted them a work, and sent them into the world for its performance. There are many men, and many classes of men beyond the boundaries of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, whom we may regard as having been vested with a special mission. The heroes and legislators of remote antiquity had their mission; it was to organize society, and lay the foundations, rough and rude though they might be, of that edifice, which successive ages should toil in the completion of. The philosophers of Greece, Socrates, and his school especially, had their mission; it was to check the mystifications of theory and the grossnesses of idolatry, to make virtue tangible and practicable, institute an experiment on the power of reason, and prepare the way for its combination with revelation. The Catholic priesthood of the middle ages had their mission; it was to mitigate the ferocity and pride of a warlike aristocracy; to mediate between the powerful and the defenceless, and direct the world by intelligence and influence, which, though often perverse, were yet a better agency than that which they restrained. The Protestant reformers had their mission; it was to break the spell of antiquity and uniformity, to expose corruption and abuse, to demolish the one great tyranny of Rome, though by the erection of a hundred petty tyrannies, and set the example of intellectual resistance, independence, and freedom. These were all as bands of laborers called forth to a particular work, which was reserved for them, and for which they were prepared. The state of the world around them, the evils and miseries. which abounded, the prospect by certain modes of

action of mitigating or annihilating those evils, their keen sense of the suffering and degradation they saw, and their soul's high impulse to wage therewith a holy warfare; these were the indications and the evidence of their mission; and it was of God.

They, and all who like them have, for some good and glorious purpose, thought and acted, toiled and suffered, must have felt and known the fact, essentially, that they had a mission. The consciousness of it must have been their impulse, their strength, and their reward. For it is impulse, strength and reward, for a man to feel himself privileged and called to the destruction of evil, and the creation of good. A mind with such an in-dwelling consciousness is its own heaven-a heaven of activity, beneficence and happiness. Little can they be appreciated by those who think God's moral government not vindicated unless good people become wealthy, and the philosophers and reformers of an age be installed in the high places of political authority, and religion parade the streets in costly robes. The world knows them not, for they are not of the world. This pure, fervid, highminded, good-giving, and self-satisfying spirit is the spirit of Christ which dwelt in them; and in the perfection of man's nature, shall dwell in all. And as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Those who first excited theological controversy, on points which superstitious ignorance, perverse acuteness, and fraudulent ambition had corrupted, had no ignoble mission. From Socinus and Davides to Priestley and Belsham, they were workmen that needed not to be ashamed, explorers and