to describe it to you? O my brethren in the Lord, can you not remem ber the hour when the Saviour withdrew from your groaning and longing souls the blinding scales; when for the first time you could exclaim, with unquestionable certainty, "Truly it is he." When for the first time you sank upon the ground before him; for the first time, with the bold free dom of the child, you wept and implored, and for the first time received out of his fullness pardon, grace, rest and peace. Remember that hour and you will realize the scene at Sychar, when these words were uttered by the Lord: "I that speak unto thee am he." Enough; the crisis had arrived! The old woman of Samaria died, and there now arose another from her grave. The sinner was pardoned, the impotent strengthened, the darkened enlightened, the mourner comforted, and the estranged one reconciled in Christ, and received to the bosom of the Father.

The disciples are returned from the city, and are marveling at their Master's condescension in entering into conversation with a woman of Samaria. They knew not the greatness, nor the fullness of his love to sinners. They must have had, however, some secret thoughts upon the subject; "for no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?" But let us not be interrupted by the disciples; rather let our thoughts rest upon the woman. But where is she now? The water-pot stands beside the well, but she is away, as on the wings of the wind, alike regardless of her household and her water-pot. She remembers only the brethren. "She went her way into the city." She tells of the blessing she has found to all she meets; she calls together the erring, the straying, the weary, and the heavy-laden, that they also may be comforted and refreshed.

Ah! how are we strengthened upon the first entrance of the living Christ into our hearts, upon the first personal acquaintance with the Son of David! He only knows who has experienced it; for it can not be described. Every thing acquires other forms and other colors; we live. in a world through which the Friend of sinners invisibly walks; we travel on a journey, and our companion is the Son of God; we dwell within a prison, yet we dwell not alone, for though we discern no one, Jesus is with us. How changed is our position with reference to heaven and earth! How changed our relation to men, to angels, and to devils! How different the views we take of all things in the world! That which the natural man called excellent, the new man calls worthless, and casts from him; that which delighted the one, is now found tedious and wearying to the other. Willingly we abandon the water-pot of earthly pleasure when we have tasted of other waters, and have our springs in thee, thou Rock of our Salvation! Now Mary Magdalene throws aside her ornaments to purchase the precious ointment for the feast of her Lord and Master. The rich young man turns from the bustling scenes of vanity and lust, and erects his dwelling beside the peaceful of the land upon Mount Zion, The ruler Nicodemus seeks no longer eminence and

distinction, but prefers, for the sake of Christ, to suffer reproach with the despised of Israel. Now Paul esteems all that he possessed, even learn. ing and reputation, as dung and dross, that he may win Christ; and Mary sits, satisfied, at the feet of her Master and Friend, and desires naught beside. "Come," cries the woman of Samaria in the streets of Sychar, " come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did!" She is not ashamed by these words to remind the whole world of her past sins. Her thought is, "The Lord is here; who shall condemn ?” She might have foreseen that the whole world would scorn and deride her as an enthusiast, for it will not endure to hear Christ extolled or spoken of with love. He who has gained a prize in the lottery, or succeeded in a speculation, may rejoice and talk of it as much and as long as it pleaseth him-no one will be offended; but speak of Christ and spiritual enjoyments, and you are immediately put to silence. But what cares the woman of Samaria for the world or the world's judgment? She feels the love of Christ constraining her, and she hastens. "Come," she cries; "come!" and this word, proceeding from the tenderest brotherly love, proves thy faith, O woman, is not vain, but life and truth. And the multitude that heard the woman speak, went out of the city and came to Jesus, and many believed and said unto the woman: "Now we believe; not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." Thus she not only blessed herself, but many were brought through her means to enjoy the same blessing. She shone as a light amid the moral darkness, and was as salt amid the world's corruption.

Behold the narrative; may it be blessed to our souls, and, as often as it is repeated, let glory and praise be given. Blessed is the man from whose hands are removed every false dependence and support; that nothing may remain to him than, with Jacob, to hang on the neck of him who alone is "the way, the truth, and the life;" and to say, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me." At such a salvation the world, indeed, may sneer, and shake the head, but we will say, "Blessed folly to despair on the strength and help of a world, and to expect salvation from two crucified hands! Estimable superstition-to abandon self, and to see our salvation and glory in those bleeding wounds! Excellent enthusiasm-to hunger and thirst only after the passover prepared at Calvary! Praiseworthy mysticism-to despair of every thing that is in heaven or on earth, and to hang the hope of a blessed eternity upon the sacrifice of a slain Lamb!" Are we Christians? Then is Christ ours! all is ours! sin, death, Satan, and the world, lie bound and conquered at our feet, and though the combat still endures, the victory is *sure; and, in anticipation, we now wave our banner joyfully, and shout cheerfully: "Behold, the eternal hills have become our heritage !" Amen.

DISCOURSE VII

W. HOFFMAN, D.D.

ANOTHER distinguished court preacher to his majesty, the King of Prussia, is the subject of this sketch-Dr. Hoffman. He was born on the 30th of October, 1806, at Leonburg, kingdom of Wurtemburg, south of Germany.

His father was a descendant of Protestant martyrs in Silesia, and was a civil officer at Leonburg, but resigned his place in 1819, in order to found, in opposition to the then prevailing neologism, the independent congregation and community of Kornstal, near Stuttgart, one of the central points of the faithful people of Wurtemburg, called Pietists. Tens of thousands owed their salvation to Hoffman, the father, and thousands of children were educated in the different institutions founded by him, in true faith and knowledge of Christ.

As might have been anticipated, he was educated as a member of the Lutheran church of his country. He was prevented by his father's mighty prayers from ever quite falling into the snares of neology. His conversion to true life in Christ was a signal work of grace at the end of his academical career at Tubingen. He refers with interest to a deep sense of the truth, a dangerous sickness when a student at Tubingen, searching in the Scriptures for theological purposes, and the writings of Luther and Calvin, to which he was led by Schleiermacher, as the most prominent means in leading him to Christ.

His education he owes to Leonburg, and to the still-living Professor Klumpf, at Stuttgart; then to the seminary (monastery) of Schoenthal, and to the theological "Stipendium," as it is called, of Tubingen, where his professors were, among others, the late Dr. Steudel, Dr. Keen, and the famous Dr. Baur, head of the negative critical school, to whose views he was always opposed.

After a five years' course in the Stipendium, he was sent, in 1829, to the village of Henmader, as curate under a pious old parson; then he was called as a tutor to the so-called "Stipendium," at Tubingen; afterward as general curate to the churches of Stuttgart.

In 1834, he was installed as second pastor at Winenden, with the pastoral care of the Insane Asylum of Winnenthal. After five years, he accepted a call to the Inspectorate (principalship) of the missionary institution at Basle, where he lived eleven years, during eight of which he was at the same time Professor of Divinity at the Basle University. In 1850, the state of his health forced him to resign that place, when, declining a call to the University of Heidelberg, and to the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., he went back to Tubingen, where, as principal of the "Stipendium," he read lectures on the Old and New Testaments. In 1852, he accepted

a call of the King of Prussia, as his chaplain at the cathedral. He is now also general superintendent of the Electorate, member of the Consistory, and High Ecclesiastical Censor to the State Council, etc., etc.

Dr. Hoffman has published a work on "Baptism;" a work against "Strauss' Life of Jesus;" "The Basle Missionary Magazine," 1840-51; "On Hindoo Female Educatin;" "Missionary Lectures," 3 vols.; "Sermons," 7 vols.; and many smaller works in reviews and collections.

It was upon the advice of Professor Nitzsch, that Dr. Hoffman was selected as one of the preachers to represent the German pulpit. The selection of the sermon which follows, was made by one of Dr. Hoffman's own friends in Berlin, who is well acquainted with his discourses. It is the last in his latest volume of sermons, published in Berlin in the year 1854, and was preached on the day of the Reformation festival, in that year.

THE LAST JUDGMENT.

"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened; which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."-REV., xx. 11, 12.

BELOVED in the Lord: Be not surprised at this text on this day. It has been selected, not only because in our series of discourses upon the last things we have now come to the consideration of the final judgment, but also because we celebrate to-day the anniversary festival of the Reformation. The final judgment is also a festival-the greatest world-festival alongside that other, when God rested from his works. As the latter was the commencement of all festive life in the creature of God, as the rest of God from creating, and in his creation was the consecration of its existence, and made the rest of the creature in God for the first time possible, so for the world's completion is the last day-the final judgment-a high, glorious world-festival, revealing the justice and truth, the grace and mercy of the triune God. For then, for the first time, when all God's judgments, in the course of human history, shall have been closed up and received their final seal, shall it become evident to all that are in heaven or on earth, or under the earth-evident beyond the possibility of cavil, that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, to whom the Father hath committed judgment, is the Lord at whose name every knee shall bow. This great festival of the world, even as the first-the rest of God from his works-has reference to all our festivals; ay, it is these divine festivals which first furnish our human nes a basis-they are the fore and after celebrations of ours. For all

our festivals are at the same time judgment-days-days of decision; and upon them it is made manifest who belong to those, who subsist upon the goods of our Father's house-to the children who have their dearest treasure there; on these days is shown what yet remains in us unchildlike, foreign to the paternal mansion.

Especially does this hold good of the festival which we celebrate this day—the festival of the Reformation. It is related to the last day most intimately, as also to the great primal festival of God's rest. To-day we revert to the sharply-defined commencement of the Reformation, when, on the thirty-first of October, 1517, Doctor Martin Luther nailed upon the door of Schloss' church, in Wittenberg, his ninety-five Theses. These ninety-five Theses contained nothing more nor less than the doctrine of Scripture respecting human works in their relation to divine free gracerespecting the forgiveness of sins for the sake of the bloody offering and sufficient merits of Jesus Christ, and not for the sake of the merits of men, be they ever so pious, or, as the world calls them, sainted. They state that man deserves not heaven, but that it is solely of grace when a poor sinful creature, even while here upon earth, is permitted to enter into the rest of God, and to become assured of the perfect rest of the faithful. The anniversary of the Reformation is a judgment-day, and it separates those in the evangelical church who are satisfied with their works and merit, or who go so far as to cherish the daring thought that God must be satisfied with them, from those who, in humility and poverty of spirit, confess that they are unprofitable servants, far too insignificant to become objects of divine mercy and faithfulness, unworthy in themselves of eternal life, but who can boast, "by grace am I saved !” On this day, that which strives within us after self-righteousness and legal merit—that which grows up out of the root of our old carnal nature, and would fain twine round us again and overgrow us, all struggle after salvation and peace in our own strength is separated from that which lays itself all lowly and contrite at the feet of the Lamb. I do not hesitate, therefore, to select, as the subject for our consideration to-day, the final judgment, as it is a judgment of grace, and a judgment according to works.

Lord, thou eternal God and Saviour, thou wilt come again to judge the quick and the dead! Thou who hast ascended into heaven, thou who hast arisen from the dead, thou who hast been crucified, dead, and buried for our sins! O let us, by thy Holy Spirit, contemplate thy second coming for final judgment, with holy earnestness, and with hearts thirsting for grace! Amen.

Not

Grace and works have become watchwords in all Christendom. merely has conscious, culpable error elevated the standard of works, but ignorance, indistinctness, uncertainty in the ways of God, ignorance of the holy Scriptures, have also collected thousands around it; not only does one whole church swarm in hoards around this banner of works,