can we do this? How can we,-if we have no advantage of age, or situation, or great talents, or force of character,-how can we influence others? I answer, that the Spirit of Christ is still the spirit of power; that to this day, signs and wonders follow them that believe. I do not mean that you can bid the blind see, or the cripple walk; that you can drive away the stroke of sickness, or bid the dead arise. But never yet did any soul turn sincerely to Christ, but the spirit of power was there. Goodness is power, and ever will be. Steady and consistent goodness, whether in young or old, in rich or in poor, must enjoy an influence, must make itself felt amongst those who see it; must, in some instances, I do not say in all, or in the majority, for the miraculous gifts of healing extended to few only amongst many sick; but it must, in some instances, open the eyes of the ignorant or thoughtless, bid the crooked walk uprightly, abate the fever of selfish and violent passions, nay, arouse the dead in trespasses and sins, till he is awakened and lives. Assuredly, the leaven will spread, the leaven must spread: not so fast, or so surely, alas! as the leaven of wickedness; yet, to a certain extent; they who are truly converted themselves, always, I believe, multiply the number of Christ's servants; they do find themselves enabled to strengthen their brethren.

And if the evil leaven be here of exceeding

power, if evil influence be nowhere caught so readily, is it not so much the more needful, that all they who love the Lord Jesus Christ, should go forth between the living and the dead, and endeavour to stay the plague? Perhaps the very words, "go forth," require to be changed in our case: there should be nothing forward, nothing pretending, for that would rather defeat its object. I should dread nothing so much as our being talked of for a great show of religion; I should fear that there might be less of the power of it. By a show of religion, I do not mean, God forbid that I should mean! a fearless reverence and love for God and the things of God, a fearless enmity to evil, and fondness for good. But I mean peculiarities of language and manner; any thing that is too artificial to suit well with your age, which, above all other times of life, requires a manner simple, straightforward, and natural. And even where there are these blemishes, they are by no means inconsistent with the power of godliness in ourselves, but they interfere with it in others; they make us less able to strengthen our brethren, because they excite a needless prejudice against

us.

This, however, is of far less consequence than that there should really be a spirit of true Christianity among us, anxious for our own souls and for those of others. If it is the first, it will be the last; for he who knows what God's service is, can

not but be eager to teach it to others. And whether he succeeds with many or with few, two things he may be sure of; that as, on the one hand, they who hear will never be so many as those who refuse to hear, for the gate to life is ever narrow, and the way to destruction broad; so, on the other hand, his labours will never be utterly vain. Some fruit it will surely find; and infinite is the good, and infinite the glory, of having brought even one sinner to repentance.

SERMON XV.

PROSELYTISM.

MATTHEW, Xxiii. 15.

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

THEY who are not familiar with the universal extent of God's revelation, with that peculiar mark of its divine original, its providing against opposite dangers with equal earnestness, although not always at equal length, inasmuch as one, though not less fatal than the other, may be less common; they may be surprised to find in the New Testament such words as those which I have just read. It may seem strange that the Founder of a religion, which was, in one sense, to owe its whole existence to proselytism, should thus strongly condemn the zeal of making proselytes; that he,

whose disciples were to labour to convert every soul, and bring it into Christ's family, should speak of persons converted from one religion to another, as being made worse than their teachers; or, as it may be implied, worse than they themselves had been before. But these words of the text, this condemnation of the Scribes and Pharisees for their spirit of proselytism, contain one of the most useful of lessons, standing, as they do, along with so many others in praise of the spirit of proselytism. We should bear in mind together the two sayings of our Lord, which so beautifully accompany one another: "Go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" and, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."

Now, if we were to put these two passages so close together before some interpreters, and many readers of Scripture, they would find nothing at all remarkable in them. They would say, that Christ enjoins Christians to make proselytes to Christianity, because it is the truth; and that he condemns the Scribes and Pharisees for making proselytes, because they brought them over to a system of error. And, accordingly, they would regard the warning as having nothing to do with themselves, nor with