not only meets the wants of our moral nature, but also corresponds with the teachings of physical science. The termination of this present epoch, foretold by Peter and Paul, who knew nothing of geology or chemistry, is precisely such as geology shows has taken place heretofore, as chemistry shows may readily take place again. And then the simplicity, and worthiness, and moral grandeur, of the epoch foretold as lying beyond, fully correspond, and more than correspond, with the magnificence of past movements, as revealed by geology, and with the terrific termination of the present scenes which the Scriptures reveal.

In these coming scenes, not only, as heretofore, will the fountains of the great deep be broken up, and the surgings of the internal ocean of fire rend the earth, and matter be unchained from its present affinities, and the electrical agencies flash and thunder from pole to pole; but above the crash and roar of the earthquake, louder than the thunder, shall be heard the "voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead shall arise." "Then shall the Son of man come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, and he shall sit on the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." "Then shall the wicked go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Then, according to his promise, do we "look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."

DISCOURSE XXIII.

GEORGE W. BETHUNE, D.D.

THIS distinguished author and divine was born in New York, March 18, 1805. He was the only son of Mr. Divie Bethune, a native of Ross-shire, Scotland, who was eminent as a merchant, and for his intelligent, active piety, exerting his influence at the starting of almost every large charitable religious society. He printed, or had printed, the first religious tract, long before the Tract printing-house; imported Bibles for distribution, long before the Bible Society; was a foreign director of the London Missionary Society, long before any missionary society existed here; was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society; and among the very earliest movers in the cause of seamen, long before the Seamen's Friend Society.

His mother, Mrs. Joanna Bethune, is still living, in her eighty-ninth year. Her mother was the celebrated Mrs. Isabella Graham. Mrs. Joanna Bethune was very active in founding the Widows' Society and the Orphan Asylum, in New York; introducing the Sunday-school system, after Raikes's plan, into this country; originating the first society for helping poor women, through their own industry, and the Society for the Promotion of Industry. She also introduced the infantschool system here.

Dr. Bethune was converted in early life, and united with the Presbyterian church, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, under the pastoral care of his brother-in-law, Rev. Dr. Duffield, having been led to trust in Christ during a remarkable revival the same year, 1822, at Dickinson College.

He studied three years in Columbia College, New York, and spent the last year and that of his graduation at Dickinson College, Carlisle. His theological education was received at Princeton Theological Seminary, of which his father was one of the founders.

He was ordained by the Second Presbytery of New York, 1827, and first settled over the Reformed Dutch church, Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, New York. His second charge was assumed in 1830: that of the Reformed Dutch Church at Utica, which he gathered and built up. This he resigned in 1834, to go to the First Reformed Dutch church, Philadelphia, of which he held the pastorate until 1836. He was settled, in 1837, over the Third Reformed Dutch church, Philadelphia, which was built for him, and the congregation of which he gathered; and in 1849, desiring to be near his aged mother, he became the stated supply of the Central Reformed Dutch church of Brooklyn. In 1851, he was settled over the Reformed Dutch church on the Heights, Brooklyn, which had been built for him, and the congregation of which he gathered. Of this church, now numbering over 300 communicants, he still has the pastoral charge.

Dr. Bethune was offered, by President Polk, the professorship of Moral Philosophy and Chaplaincy at the Military Academy, West Point, which he declined. He was also elected Chancellor of the New York University, 1850, which he in like manner declined.

He was, in 1840, President of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, and is now a member of the American Philosophical Society, and of many historical and other literary societies, besides being largely identified with the great benevolent institutions of the day.

He is widely known as the author of many valuable publications, such as sermons before the Foreign Evangelical Society, the American Sunday-school Union, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Newark, 1856, with numerous others on different public and special occasions, including some eighteen or twenty orations before various literary societies. His more permanent and useful works are, "The Fruit of the Spirit;" "Early Lost, Early Saved;" "The History of a Penitent;" "Lays of Love and Faith;" a volume of sermons; and "Orations and Occasional Discourses," published in 1851. Several of these works are very able; but the Doctor calls the "FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT," his "pet" book. It is a most edifying volume. He has also edited several works.

Dr. Bethune has one of the largest private libraries in the country (over 5,000 volumes), and he works it with a will. It is especially rich in ancient and English literature and belles-lettres, of which he is particularly fond. He is an ardent admirer of the beautiful in nature and art, and has composed some gems of poetry. He is one of the most fervid yet chaste orators in the American pulpit, and his written style is eloquent, and marked frequently by remarkable verbal felicities.

His sermons are characterized by the prominence which he everywhere gives to the doctrines of the cross. The last words of his dying father have not been forgotten: "Preach the gospel! Tell dying sinners of the Saviour: all the rest is but folly!" His discourses are also carefully prepared, and often highly elaborated. In style and movement they are easy, graceful, simple, yet adorned, but not with dazzling ornaments. He is a master of rhetoric, and applies his acquisitions in this department with great advantage. His soul is in his preaching, and not unfrequently shows itself in great vigor of gesture and action of body. Few men, if any, in the country, have a wider reputation as a platform speaker, lecturer, and pulpit orator. He has hundreds of applications in a year to lecture before Lyceums, Young Men's Christian Associations, Literary Societies, and the like, most of which, of course, must be declined. He is seldom absent from his pulpit, loves his people, and is beloved as an affectionate pastor.

Of the many admirable sermons of Dr. Bethune which have come under our notice, no one is more worthy of his reputation, than that which is here introduced. The opening is happy, the divisions natural, the peroration apt and impressive, and the language and course of thought throughout highly eloquent and entertaining. A passage is not often met with, which is more truly sublime, than that toward the close, in which the words occur, "Hark! the trumpet! the earth groans and rocks herself, as if in travail! They rise, the sheeted dead; but how lustrously white are their garments! how dazzling their beautiful holiness," etc.

VICTORY OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE.

"O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."-1 COR., xv. 55–57.

THE sublimity of the text overpowers us. It is the exultation of an inspired apostle. How shall we, weak and imperfect Christians, dare to take words of such fearless joy upon our sinful lips?

My brethren, the apostle, inspired of God, speaks also as a sinner saved by grace. The truth which gives him all his courage, he preaches for our confidence. His conquering Champion, in the fight with death and the grave, 66 was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." He exults as a Christian in God the Saviour, and he invites all who receive the gospel to join in his triumphant faith, when he exclaims,

"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

It is, therefore, our privilege and our duty to make the words of the text our own. God strengthen us, by their holy teachings, to rejoice in the victory, and to utter the thanksgiving with our whole hearts!

The apostle has demonstrated the glorious resurrection of the just in Christ, by an elaborate argument, and states his conclusion as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy (xxv. 5), that the Lord "will swallow up death in victory, and will wipe away tears from off all faces." "So,” says he (54), "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass this saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory."" His pious soul, with that faith "which is the substance of things hoped for," anticipates the full triumph, now made certain by the resurrection and ascension to glory of Christ the Saviour, the Life and Forerunner of his church. He remembers the promise of God by the prophet Hosea (xiii. 14): “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction ;" and in a burst of eloquent exultation, he defies his former enemies: "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!" Thou hadst a sting, O death! "The sting of death is sin;" and that sting was deadly. "The strength of sin is the law;" but now is thy sting plucked out, and all its venom turned into life. "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

The natural division of the text, and that which we shall follow, is: The Challenge and the Thanksgiving: I. THE CHALLENGE: "O Death, where is thy sting! O Grave, where is thy victory!" II. THE THANKSGIVING: Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

Under the first head we shall consider the sting of death and the victory of the grave; under the second, the Christian's victory over them; which will include an explanation of the intermediate verse: of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law."

I THE CHALLENGE:

The sting

"O Death, where is thy sting! O Grave, where is thy victory!" The apostle, following Hosea, and by a strong figure, challenges death and the grave separately, though, strictly, they are one. The victory of the grave is the consequence of the sting of death. It is a bold challenge to demand of Death, Where is thy sting? and of the Grave, Where is thy victory?

Where is the sting of death? Alas! and is it nothing to die? Nothing to be made sure that we must die? Is it nothing to leave this fair earth, the light of the cheerful sun, our pleasant homes, our loving friends, and to be buried and become as dust beneath the sod, and under the shade of the gloomy cypresses? Is it nothing to close our senses forever upon all we have cherished, and sought, and hoped for, and prided ourselves in? Is it nothing to have the sad certainty before us at all times, in the midst of our best successes, that the hour is coming when the cold, narrow, ignominious grave, shall hide us from them all? That our plans, contrive them and pursue them as we may, of ambition, gain, knowledge, service to those who are dear, zeal for our country and the welfare of mankind, must be broken off, and the brain which projected, the hand which wrought, and the heart which beat strong, become still as the clod, and the luxury of worms? Is it nothing that every step of humanity, the first tottering effort of the crowing child, the sportive spring of youth, the firm tread of adult vigor, and the halt of the old man, leaning upon his staff, is to the same vile end? That every hour of sleep or activity, pleasure or sorrow, thoughtfulness or gayety, alike urges us irresistibly on? Is it nothing that the blood shall be chilled at its fountain, and the clammy sweat-drops start out upon the forehead, and the breath come slow, and in agony, and the life, clinging desperately, be torn away and cast forth by fierce convulsion?

Has death no sting, when we hold the beloved, who made life precious, and the world beautiful, by so frail, brief, melancholy a tenure? Has it no sting for the yearning bosom, from whose warm sanctuary the little one has been taken, never again to nestle sweetly there at waking morn, or for the noon-tide sleep, or in the drowsy evening?

Has it no sting in that "life-long pang a widowed spirit bears ?" Has it no sting when the faces, which reflected our smiles, and beamed back upon us tenderness, and sympathy, and faith, are so changed that we must send them away and bury them out of our sight? Or when we follow the good man, the just, the generous, the friend of the sorrowful and the stranger and the poor, the wise teacher of truth, the advocate