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We must all meet again at a future day, in a larger assembly than the present, when we shall behold HIM who hath said, "I am the Light of the World." Let every one of us, then, "bear witness to the light;" by contributing, according to his ability, to its extension throughout the world: If the Christian revelation be from God, to give the revelation to the heathen world is the first duty of a Christian nation. If there be a majority of our nation who do not acknowledge this duty, the case is not different from what it ever hath been. When the apostle Paul went forth to evangelize the world, men accounted him to be "beside himself." Now we have stronger encouragement to attempt the conversion of the heathen world at this day, than the apostle had, in the first age; for we have seen that their conversion is practicable. We only meditate to do that a second time which hath been once done already. And we know that the same divine spirit which was with him, "will abide in the world for ever." Men were not converted then, merely by the sight of a miracle: but by the grace of God. And the same grace is promised

to us.

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Do we not

But there is another consideration. hear the command of Christ? "Go ye and teach all nations." If we are sure that this is Christ who speaketh to us, let us not "confer with flesh and blood." If there be any man who is swayed by the opinion of the multitude, he "is not worthy" of Christ. "He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, saith our Lord, is not worthy of me." No man can follow Christ in the sense here intended, who cannot follow the example of Enoch and Noah and believe God and not man. Let us therefore press forward in faith, and "serve God in our generation," contented to do a little where much cannot be done. Some of the disciples of our Lord whom he addressed as "the Light of the World,”

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left the world very shortly afterwards: but, like John the Baptist, whose race was also short, they shone as "burning lights" during their appointed season. So let us shine.

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Yet a little while and "the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him; and before him shall be gathered all nations." Then shall the adversaries of the truth be abashed and confounded, when they shall hear him say unto "the Redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," (some of whom they had said could never believe in Christ) COME YE BLESSED! Then shall they strike their breasts and say, troyers of our own souls! we could not believe the word of God. But our doom is just. We believed Satan and promoted his designs and labored for his glory: and we opposed the work of God, and obstructed the gospel of Christ, and ruined the souls of men. Our condemnation is just; and now we must go with the 'Prince of Darkness' whom we served upon earth: and now we must hear the terrible sentence, Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels." Matthew xxv, 41.

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My brethren, "Heaven and earth shall pass away; but the words of Christ shall not pass away." Matt. xxiv, 35.

Let us then with true affection for the souls of our brethren, earnestly supplicate a merciful God who willeth not the death of a sinner, that he would send forth his light and his truth to convert their hearts and enlighten their understandings, in this their day of life and hope; that so they may unite with his people, in endeavoring to do his will on earth, as it is in heaven; "teaching all nations to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded us." Matt. xxviii, 20.

Stephen and James.

And now with one voice, and with true faith let us ascribe to God the Father who loved us before the world was: and to God the Son who redeemed us by his blood; and to God the Holy Ghost, who hath sanctified us and "made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," all blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, for ever and ever. Amen.

THE

ERAS OF LIGHT.

GEN. 1, 3. Let there be Light.

AMONG the many pieces of sublime and beautiful composition with which the service of our church abounds, there is a prayer which I have always admired; and which will properly introduce the Era of Light, that is to be the subject of this discourse; mean that collect in which we pray that our church may be "enlightened by the doctrine of the evangelist St. John"

The doctrine of the evangelist St. John accords with that of our Saviour before mentioned: namely, That God the Father is love. "God is love. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins," 1 John iv, 10.

Of God the Son he saith, that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: and that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin," 1 John i, 7.

Of God the Holy Ghost he saith, "It is the spirit that beareth witness (to the Son of God,) because the spirit is truth;" and of its operation on the hearts of believers he saith, that "they have an unction from the Holy One;" and that this unction abideth in them; that they are thus born of God," and become "the children of God;" and, finally, that the evidence of their being thus born again, is "the love of the breth.

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