ing them and stamping them with infamy, many bulwarks of sin would have been demolished, and many, now wrapped in the slumbers of spiritual death, and wedded to iniquity, been enrolled among the subjects of Immanuel.

Let, then, the resolution now be made, in dependence on grace, that God shall indeed have our hearts from henceforth. Consider the motives to this end which have been offered. Let not our professions stand alone. Let them be joined to evangelical obedience. There are professions enough-let there be corresponding practice. Resolve, if there is a heaven, I will get to it; and, if possible, I will get others to it. While I live in this world, there shall be no doubt whose I am, and whom I serve. I will emulate the devotion of David. Like him, my heart shall be fixed-fixed to love my King, my Bible, and holiness-fixed to resist evil in high places and low places-fixed to be a faithful soldier of the Cross. My eye shall be circumspect and my armor bright.

The Lord dispose each of us to make such a resolution, and give us strength to keep it. As "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem," so may we steadfastly set our faces towards the Heavenly City, and stop not till we cross its golden threshold, and are surrounded with its glories.

SERMON CCCCLXIII.

BY REV. HENRY A. ROWLAND,

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HONESDALE, PA.

GOD'S WORD UNFAILING.*

For 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 1 please, and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.-ISAIAH 55: 10.

In the natural world, there is a wise adaptation of agencies to produce beneficial results. So perfect is the wisdom of that God who presides over the course of nature, as intuitively to comprehend her operations, and to provide those instrumentalities which may be needed to effect an important and valuable end. The

* Delivered before the Synod of New York and New Jersey, Oct., 1847.

world is full of agents which are co-operating, each in its own proper sphere, to fulfil his wise designs.

One of these agents is the sun whose beams irradiate the earth, quicken its vegetation, and impart those influences by which it is refreshed with rain in due proportions, and supplied with the light and heat which are required to bring its fruits to maturity and prepare them for the sustenance of man.

Another of these agents is water, which, under the influence of heat, ascends from the earth as vapor, floats in the atmosphere, is collected into clouds, borne by the winds to places the most remote, condensed by cold, and shed down again to earth as rain or dew, and when congealed by the winter's frost, as snow or hail. This self-regulating process of evaporation and condensation, has existed from the creation of the world. The sun exhales the vapor from the earth, the atmosphere sustains it, the clouds become the vehicles of its transportation, and it is discharged from them in a form best suited to the irrigation of the soil. Thus the earth is constantly refreshed with m osture, and enabled to sustain vegetable life; the fountains are supplied, the brooks replenished, and the ground prepared for the labors of the husbandmen. Through this simple process, God performs a great work for man; and he provides seed for the sower, and bread for the eater, which, human wisdom, independently of his agency, could never obtain. These beneficial results in the natural world, are produced through His providential care; and, in the moral world, He is equally the source of all good influences, and His word is the channel through which they flow." For 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 prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

The truth communicated by the prophet respecting the Messiah's advent, his sufferings and death, and the universal extension of his kingdom, and which comprises everything essential to salvation, is the word to which special allusion is here made. These are the great truths which pervade the whole system of revelation, and bind all its parts together in symmetrical and beautiful proportions. We do no injustice to the text, therefore, when we apply it to the whole of that word which God has communicated to man for the guidance of his moral actions, and as his directory to heaven.

This word is contained in the Sacred Scriptures, which have been divinely given to men. God has had personal and direct intercourse with them, and His communications have been put on record. He has written His law on two tables of stone, and re

vealed it to the world through Moses. He has inspired holy men of old with a knowledge of the truth which they have written down by His directions and published. The thoughts or will of God thus expressed to men, are properly denominated His Word. To this the Psalmist often refers as the source of instruction, guidance, counsel, admonition, joy, and hope. "Give me understanding," he says, "according to thy word." "Order my steps in thy word." "Quicken me according to thy word." "I will delight in thy statutes, I will not forget thy word." "I hope in thy word."

This word is, through various channels of communication, imparted to men; and its influence on the intellectual and moral world, resembles that of the rain and dew on the world of nature. The press exerts an efficient agency in the dissemination of truth; and, through its instrumentality, copies of the Word of God are indefinitely multiplied. Modern improvements in the arts, have brought them to such perfection that an edition of the Sacred Oracles may be thrown off from the press in a very brief portion of time, and the rags which are gathered from the streets to-day, may to-morrow present themselves as a volume, containing the whole of the revealed will of God to man; nor are there any bounds to the multiplication of these volumes.

The Word of God, thus fitted for use, and communicating all that is essential to salvation, may lie upon one's table, and be daily consulted, as the mariner consults his chart to discover the difficulties and dangers which may affect his safety in a hitherto untried voyage. It may be made the companion of his life, may accompany him in his travels, converse with him by the way, comfort him in affliction, prepare him for the varied changes of his earthly pilgrimage, and enable him, at last, to reach in safety his journey's end.

Through parental instruction, vast multitudes receive their first impressions of truth; and through the Sabbath school and other analagous methods, is the Word of God brought into contact with the human heart, instructing, counselling, admonishing, and guiding those who are reached by its influences.

Christian example is another, and one of the most efficient means of communicating the Word of God. It presents to view an embodiment of its holy precepts, and exhibits to the world the superior excellence of its doctrines. The example of Christ, which is set forth in the Sacred Records, is a practical exemplification of the precepts which he taught, and it will be the means of conveying to mankind a more perfect knowledge of his religion to the end of time. So also does the example of Christians give an apt illustration of the truth; and it is compared by our Savior to light shining in darkness.

But, it is through the voice of the living preacher, that this Word

is especially designed to be communicated to men. Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to go into all the world and make known his Gospel to all nations; and in obedience to this injunction, many have already gone forth, bearing his Gospel in their hands. and on their lips, to remote nations; and there is scarcely a people on the face of the whole earth, who have not heard proclaimed in their own tongue the wonderful works of God.

The influence of the Word as thus disseminated, is as necesary for the promotion of happiness in the moral world, as the rain and dew are in the world of nature, for the production of those fruits which are required for human subsistence. We view the luxuriant garden, with its varieties of fruit and flower, and the landscape, as it spreads itself out in beauty to the eye; we repose under the shade of the thick foliage, and are led with gratitude to view the evidences of our Creator's goodness which are on every side displayed to our observation; and when we see the morning dew glistening in the sunbeam, and the gentle showers descending on the fields and groves, we discover a primary cause of this beauty in the element which is so wisely dispensed. Let this be withheld, and the attractions of this natural scenery would soon all vanish.

So the Word of God, in the moral world, is the source of all those genial influences which impart happiness to man, and embellish the field of moral vision which lies around him. Go where the influence of this Word has never been felt, and the eye will rest only on a moral desert, as bleak and desolate as the vices and wickedness of man can make it. But when the Word of God sheds its benignant influences down upon this waste, its aspect is changed, and in place of darkness, ignorance, superstition and sin, there are knowledge, religion, and happiness diffused abroad.

But how, it is asked, is this change produced, and in what way does the Word of God accomplish this desired result. This we may perceive, if we view the effects which this word produces on a single individual whom we assume to be a fair representative of the race. He is one who has wandered far from God and is naturally possessed of a sinful heart,—a heart full of desires which he does not approve, and whose tendencies are to courses of conduct which he has prohibited. Living to his own worldly enjoyment, he has cast off his higher responsibilities to his Creator. God as the object of love, is not in all his thoughts. The language which his conduct speaks respecting him is, depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. This man is a fair representative of the world without God. His desires, if indulged without restraint, would bear him far away from moral virtue, and sink him from his present position in society to the lowest point in the descending scale, and into a worse state of dark

ness, pollution and guilt, than ever presents itself to view within the moral horizon. But at length he is reached by the Word of God as in one or another of its forms it is communicated to the world.

Perhaps while wandering in the street on the holy Sabbath he enters a Christian sanctuary; and the voice of the minister of the Word, pourtraying the human heart in its degeneracy, arrests his attention. He listens with an interest before unfelt; and while his own character is presented to view through the moral likeness which it bears to others of the human family, he feels the truth. The Word, through the influences of the Holy Spirit, becomes quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The law of God arrayed before him in its spirituality and power, becomes the mirror in which he sees himself reflected, and when he departs from the sanctuary, it is with the inquiry on his lips "what must I do?"

Again he seeks that sacred place, and a new theme is introduced. He hears from the minister of the Word, that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," that "he came to seek and save them that are lost." It is a truth adapted to the necessities of his moral nature, and which comes home with power to his heart. He listens to the wonders of redemption, and of the forgiveness of sins through a Savior's name; and while the cross in its attractions is held up to view, he looks upon his Savior there as expiating by his death the sins of men. This, he says, is the very Savior that I need. I am that poor lost sinner whom he came to save; he died on that cross for me. Then the thought of his own ingratitude to one who has given his life for his redemption, pierces his heart. His soul is melted to tenderness, his eyes overflow with tears; he bows in penitence at his feet in true submission, while his affections, now renewed and changed, go forth and fix themselves on Christ, his Savior. He is now ready to wash his feet with his tears, and to wipe them with the hair of his head. He receives him by faith into his heart, becomes an imitator of his excellence, and henceforth lives to reflect his glory in the dark world around him. This momentous change in his character and destiny, is effected through the power of that divine Word, which like the fire and the hammer breaketh the flinty rock in pieces.

These are the legitimate effects of this word, when its power is exerted on a single heart; and similar to these are the effects produced in all who experience the moral transformation which it imparts. Such changes are rapidly multiplied under the auspicious influences of the Holy Spirit, when they are poured out on the Christian Church. Under its ministration, churches are built