beseeching grace? shall His gentleness again encounter our hardness and impenitence ?-nay, rather shall we not each of us say, "Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee"?

And what a pattern is here for our dealings one with another. Fathers with refractory sons-sons with untoward fathers. Brothers with brothers offended. Ministers with the wilfully wicked. Teachers with careless children. Only gentleness can make them great; harshness must make them worse. Oh, try with them the power of love, of gentleness, of patience, of long-suffering. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

Although not of this world, this kingdom is intensely and unconquerably in it. Its principles are rooted beneath the uttermost foundations of society. Its precepts and rules are working themselves (not formally, but as with the freshness and beauty of a vegetative life) into the texture of all institutions. Its animating spirit is breathing abroad like the summer wind, blowing where it listeth. And the conviction is growing even in the world itself, that this kingdom will outgrow, outwork, outshine, outlive every other. We are not now speaking directly of the future. We are speaking of the present, as the presage and pledge of it. We are not drawing a picture; we are announcing a fact. A more solid fact is not to be found than this-that the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ is the grand power of the world to-day. There is nothing to match it, nothing to compare with it. Among ourselves, especially, it is the force of forces--the fullest, strongest fountain of our country's life. It suggests legislation; it constitutes crime, defines virtue, fashions manners, describes rights; it rules thought, outreaches philosophy, anticipates science, quickens and refines the arts. There is nothing it does not touch, and it touches nothing but with the royal hand of a spiritual supremacy. Men may deny this; they may argue or declaim, fret or fume against it—but still it is true. The great mountain is a mountain still, not losing one grain from its substance, although the angry child is beating it with a straw. Thus far the kingdom of God has come; and we have come to the kingdom. We have come weary and heavy laden, with heart fears, and life burdens, seeking for our own souls its refreshing and its rest-seeking to be happy in the Saviour's peace, and pure in the purity of God. But not for these things only. We have come to the kingdom "for such a time as this," soldiers for conflict, living witnesses for the testimony of God, workers ready for His blessed work-ready to press through the opening gates, ready to reap the ripening fields, ready to speak the living Word to dying men-" Ready, aye ready? If we have not this motto upon our escutcheon, we are not come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Opportunity is so quick, possibilities are so great, forces are so strong, and the prospects of the opening future are so enrapturing, but yet so dependent on faithfulness in the present hour, that we must be "ready for every good work," or lose our function and our peculiar place in the great time on which we have fallen.-From God's Purpose and Man's Opportunity. A Sermon, by Rev. A. RALEIGH.

The Minister's Call, Congregation,
and Work.

BY THE

REV. J. T. DAVIDSON,

MINISTER OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RIVER TERRACE.

(On the occasion of his entering on the Pastorate of that Congregation, August 10th, 1862.)

"Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?"-Acts x. 29.

Ir may be well, brethren, at the outset of our ministry among you, to consider together the nature of the pastoral office, and to come to some understanding as to our mutual duties and obligations. I select this text, therefore, or rather the passage in which it is found, not so much for the purpose of regular exposition, as that it may form the basis for some practical reflections upon the characteristics of an earnest congregation, and the responsibilities of a faithful minister. And I think the narrative here may suggest some interesting thoughts, which are fitted to be useful to all of us.

St. Paul records it as no small part of the mighty "mystery of godliness," that Christ should be "preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world." And truly, when we consider all the vast and innumerable advantages that accrue to us, from that wide opening of the Gospel door, or that demolishing of the old partition wall that divided Jew from Gentile, we too, though not "of Israel after the flesh" (as Paul was), may wonder at it with a great admiration; and cherish with liveliest gratitude the world-wide commission of our now ascended Lord, "Go ye into all the world," &c.

Some seven or eight years had now elapsed since, from the quiet slopes of Bethany, He had given His disciples this parting command, with His parting blessing; and yet, up to the time to which this chapter refers, not a single Gentile had been received into the Christian Church. None, indeed, had been admitted and baptized, who were not Jews, Samaritans, or proselytes; all of whom were circumcised, and observed the ceremonial law; for the proselytes, though Gentiles, were persons who had practically become Jews,

SERMON IV.

E

conforming entirely to the system of Judaism. Now, however, the time was come, when Gentiles were to be openly and directly admitted, as Gentiles, into the Church; when, without passing through the medium of Judaism, without becoming proselytes at all, they should be publicly welcomed into the fold of Christians.

Our chapter then, as it points to the first uncircumcised convert, so it contains the first Gospel sermon ever preached to a Gentile congregation and, in the calling of the minister, the conduct of the people, and the results that followed the union, there are points, which it were well for the Church of every age to imitate.

On the part of Peter, we see his promptitude to obey the call, and the eagerness with which he entered upon the discharge of his holy mission; while, on the part of the congregation, we see their persevering prayerfulness, their avidity to hear the Gospel message, and their anxiety to bring as many as possible within the joyful sound.

Without further preface, then, let me enlist your attention to the subject, under the following threefold division :—

I. The minister's summons to the work. "I came," says Peter, as soon as I was sent for." By whom was he sent for, and sent forth?

II. The calling congregation. "Came I unto you." We shall see the sort of sphere to which he was invited.

III. The preacher's mission. "I ask, therefore, for what intent ye have sent for me?" What is the design or purpose on which I come here ?

May the Divine Spirit guide to profitable reflections !

First, Let us consider the summons, or the authority on which the preacher goes forth to his work. It is not on his own authority, else his labour shall be in vain; for "how shall they preach, except they be sent ?" It is a principle of the highest importance, a principle on which the Word of God is clear, and a principle (let me say) which, as a branch of the Christian Church, we firmly and resolutely hold, that, ere a minister is settled iu any sphere of the vineyard of the Lord, there is a twofold call which he should hear addressed to him, namely, the call of the Spirit, and the call of the church. In other words, he must be sent forth, and sent for: sent forth by the Spirit from on high, and sent for by the people among whom he is to labour.

The more clear and decided be these calls,-the inward call of the Spirit, and the external call of the church,-the more plain and unequivocal is the path of duty. In both these respects Peter was left no alternative but to go down from Joppa to Cesarea.

1. He had the summons of the Holy Spirit.

On the roof of the tanner's house he had been wont to retire for prayer, doubtless seeking the special guidance of the Master whom he served. And He who hath promised that to the "upright there shall arise light in darkness," was not indifferent to his petitions; but, by a special vision and visitation of the Spirit, made his path plain before him. Ah! brethren, it is striking, in reading this narrative, to observe that at the very same time a minister and a congregation (the

minister being Peter, and the congregation Cornelius's household and friends), though distant from, and ali unknown to each other, were praying to the same God for light and counsel. There is little doubt Peter was inquiring where he ought to go; and it is evident that the centurion's household were praying for a teacher; for when the apostle's visit was intimated to them by the Spirit, He thus spoke to Cornelius, "Thy prayer is heard."

But it is Peter's call or summons we have chiefly to do with at present.

The Spirit said unto him, "Arise, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them."

It is, or ought to be, to us, brethren, a very solemn and a very searching consideration, that the very first requisite of an ambassador of Christ, is to have the inward call of the Holy Spirit.

He must have reason to believe, and grounds on which to satisfy himself, that God has called him to the work-not merely to the ministerial work in general, but to the sphere which he has chosen in particular. He must hear, as it were, from the lips of Him who "walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and holds in His right hand the seven stars," the voice which Paul so emphatically heard-"I send thee to open their eyes," &c.

Without this inward call, this witness of the Spirit in his own soul, that God is sending him, his ministry shall be without savour, and his work without reward; and an upbraiding conscience may be supposed to utter in his ear that note of alarm, "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ?" "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran."

Oh, brethren, pray for us, that we may daily have increasing evidence of our heavenly commission; and in regard to this special sphere on which we now enter, may hear the voice of the Spirit as plain as Peter heard it: "Arise, get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them." But

2. Peter had also the summons of the congregation. Without this the Divine vision he saw would have been mysterious and inexplicable.

But the Providence of God and the Spirit of God work together: and oh, it is a happy thing when we are able to see both pointing plainly in one direction. The congregation (as we shall see) was not such a very small one after all, though centred in the person of Cornelius; and when the deputation (consisting of three persons) came down to Peter and declared their pressing errand, he saw at once that the thing was of the Lord. So (we read) “And on the morrow Peter went away with them.'

We are accustomed, brethren, to believe, and I think we are right in believing, that when the Spirit of the Lord is calling a minister to a particular sphere, the hearty call of the congregation will not be wanting. Indeed, we are not at liberty to separate the one from the other, for an earnest and unanimous call is itself one of the elements, in which we read the will of the great Head of the Church.

Where this is not given, where the people give no expression to their own feeling on the matter, there is wanting that, which we must ever regard as the clearest intimation of Jehovah's will.

The cordial and unanimous expression of the people's choice, arrived at after much prayer, and exercise of calm and deliberate judgment, must always be to a servant of the Lord, the most satisfactory indication of what the Master would have him to do, as well as the most encouraging promise of success in the sacred work.

I have some reason, my dear friends, to believe and hope, that I am summoned to the work on which I enter to-day, both by the call of the church's Head, and by the cordial wish of a united people. And I would gladly accept of these as tokens for good, that there is work for me here to do, and that success will crown the doing of it. Having now considered the minister's summons, let us next, and in the

Second place, Glance at the calling congregation, and notice some of its characteristic features. There were four excellent elements in it, all of which we should like to see here. It was a very mixed congregation, a praying congregation, a hearing congregation, and a missionary congregation.

1. It was very mixed, composed of all classes of people. There were there, in the most literal sense, Jew and Gentile, high and low, rich and poor, young and old. The Cornelii (it is well known) were a noble family, and this centurion, doubtless, held a position of influence: not only as commander of the "Italian band," which (no question of it) was the Roman governor's body-guard, but also as, being stationed in Cesarea, where that governor statedly resided, he would come in contact with not a few of the highest families from Rome. Then, besides Cornelius and his family, there were (as the 24th verse tells us) his "kinsmen and near friends;" his servants were also there, and, without doubt, many soldiers of his regiment, some of whom (as we see from the 7th verse) had already felt the influence of his piety. These were all Gentiles; but Jews were there also; for you find from the 12th verse of the following chapter that six of them accompanied Peter from Joppa. It was indeed a good congregation, for (verse 27), when Peter went in "he found many that were gathered together."

Now it is a great advantage to a congregation to be composed of all classes. I do not like a church that has none of God's poor ones in it, to whom it was specially designed that the Gospel should be preached.

Nor is it advisable to be without some of influence and position, who are able, by their means and station, to further every Christian enterprize.

Nor, brethren, is it necessary that as a worshipping people, we should all be even of one religious persuasion. Though firmly holding and admiring the principles and polity of that branch of the Christian church with which most of us are connected, I hold these ecclesiastical distinctions to be of little moment, when contrasted with the grand ends of the preached gospel; and I shall offer the heartiest welcome to all-whatever be their denominational