of the dreamy and shifting notions of man; to abide ever upon the eternal rock of God's doctrine and scheme, and herein we see clearly the value and the efficacy of this law of dependence.

4. The vital and efficacious bearing of the sentiment in question, appears further in this: that it leads those who cherish it directly to the fountain of all strength and success. Feeling weak, insufficient in themselves, most naturally will they repair to him who has strength, to whom nothing is too hard, and who is ever ready to help.

Though they use the means God has directed, present the truth he has given-they know well enough that it will accomplish nothing without his blessing. His own mighty power must go with it, before there will be any adequate power in it. Preachers may preach as Stephen did, till they are stoned for their pain giving faithfulness; the stones themselves may rise up in the place of the slain and preach with a like faithfulness; the dead may come forth from their graves, and the spirits join them from the invisible scene, and preach with the eloquence of heaven, and the impassioned energy of despair, and the best of it and all of it will accomplish nothing in the conversion and redemption of men :-this is their conviction, robust and profound within them, it is what they know. And what is the effect of it? Not to let down the importance of truth, or of preaching,―of any labor, argument, or eloquence to extend it, and give it power;but this, the effect is to bring them to the throne of God in prayer, knowing that they themselves cannot do it-knowing that God can, and that he waits to be inquired of. They come to his throne; and if they come humbly and in faith, they do not come in vain. They get help. They draw down power-a power that is felt in the mighty touch and sweep of it. And there is progress-something is done that will abide accomplished, and be revealed in glory; and all because of this spirit of dependence which brought them straight and earnest to that fountain of power with a heart and a faith to open its treasured resources and energies upon the world.

5. The practical efficacy of the sentiment appears further in this--that it is a greatly invigorating sentiment. It not only leads to effort, and to effort of the right sort-using the right means; and leads also the soul to God for a blessing upon the means, its tendency is to foster vigorous and sustained effort-labor. It puts into the people a mind to work, and work with wholeness and heartiness. And how does it do this? I answer, by putting within them, the spirit of hope-the assured belief that their labor will not be in vain in the Lord. It is God--his means they are to use his efficiency they are to seek and wield--his cause they are to promote. Laboring now with such dependence, environed as they know themselves to be, with such powers, may they not labor in hope? Were it themselves only; were the enterprise

based upon a boasted self-reliance; were they to enter upon the warfare in their own name, and at their own charges, there might be, there inevitably would be, doubts and distrust, sufficient to dampen the energy, and extinguish all disposition to try. Such is the very nature of distrust and despondency. It weighs down the soul in the chilling glooms of inaction; while the opposite is the effect of the hope which this spirit of dependence, and consequently of trust, begets. It is to lift up and cheer the heart, and brighten the countenance, and nerve the soul for instant and manly endeavor; because we are sure of the end. Other labors may fail, these will not fail. Other enterprises may come short, this of redemption will attain its consummation. We are sure, because we have put ourselves upon the foundation God has laid; have linked our toil and our prayer fast to his blessed promise; and joined our heart to the infinite heart of his Son; and made our interest one with the great kingdom of his grace. Whenever we can do this, as individuals, or as churches, we are ready for anything-for peace or conflict-for life or death-ready to launch out into the deep, to go any where that Christ will go with us to enter upon any work which Christ bids us do, because we have confidence in him-because when we feel weak then are we strong. Such is the invigorating tendency of this doctrine of a felt dependence.

The

There is not only an invigorating, but also a persistent efficacy in the sentiment. It induces the mind to hold on; when nothing seems to be done for a long time; when no progress is apparent from the labor and the sacrifices, so long and so abundantly be stowed, this feeling of dependence urges to perpetuity of labor. The argument is very short and simple. The efficiency being of God, it will be revealed in his own good time; assuredly at some time, it will appear; his own crowning blessing will come. depending and waiting Christian knows, that if he falls back, he forfeits everything; loses all the toil, expense, and heart's treasure thus far bestowed. If he take off his hand, one single hour, before God's time comes, he foregoes the whole; but if he keep on his hand, and keep firm and true his heart, the very crisis of his discouragement may be the harbinger of the king's approach, and the day of his own triumph. There may be great opposition, formidable powers arrayed against, barriers seemingly insur mountable towering in the path. Shall he for these falter and give over? It is a brief process, I say again. With his cherished doctrine of dependence for his premises, he springs boldly to the conclusion. Against all, God helping, he holds on and goes forward; and the lions flee, and the obstacles sink, and he comes victorious to the end and consummation of his hopes.

We see all through, how in the things of God, this doctrine of dependence, stands associated with ultimate success. Whatever Christian, or body of Christians will labor with this feeling—this doctrine embalmed in the heart, with the strength and steadiness

it inspires, employing the means and only those which it dictates and sanctions-the great principles of the gospel, professed and lived, and loved, and preached, and the promised Spirit sought in earnest prayer; whoever in this tone and frame, will thus labor, and hold on against all signs and all weathers, will accomplish much in the end for human welfare-much for the regeneration of society, and the saving of the souls of men. All other plans, and schemes, and theories abroad, are only experiments; mere mushroom-growths, the offspring of human pride and restlessness. But this other process, I have sketched, a chain at once of adamantine strength, and of shining links of love-constructed from the golden treasures of the gospel, reaching back and making fast to the throne of God himself, and extending forward till it shall compass at length a world within the pale of a willing and joyous allegiance this has stood the test and strife of ages, and has come out brighter and stronger from all the fires it has gone through. Many will scorn this way. Still they are blessed by it, if ever blessed at all. The true reformations are where God's word and signal working are. The decency, the morality, the piety are here the foundation-stones, and the supporting pillars of the great edifice of society are here. All else but hay and wood and stubble. Our strength and valid expectation come only in a fixed trusting here-will be realized fully, gloriously, in a child-like leaning upon our God.

Let me in closing just indicate three or four remarks suggested by this subject.

1. This doctrine or sentiment of dependence shuts the door against most of the excuses made for withholding Christian endeavor. The greatest excuse of all, the one most frequently bubbling out, is this:-"I am such a poor weak creature, it is of no use to attempt any thing." This sentiment broods in many a heart, like a smothering ash bed, upon all the coals of Christian zeal; and is ever coming from the lips to chill and throw back other timid and adventuring hearts. "O, we are such little feeble ones; moats in God's immensity; 'tis of no use." I say, it is all wrong. You can do it perhaps certainly you can try. And it matters little whether you try, or Gabriel tries; for neither you nor Gabriel can do it without God. And God can do it, and will as soon do it, through you, as through Gabriel. Before our blessed doctrine of an ever present and ever working God, always ready to do through our humble endeavor, human littleness and feebleness has nothing to say, but only to go forward, believe and be strong in the Lord.

2. Our subject authorizes any measure of Christian expectation. I only name this. You see, at once, what a scale and scene of wonder it opens to the vision of your faith.

3. This feeling of dependence, is an admirable beauty in the character. The creature in his place giving God the throne;

God shining from his throne, and the creature dwelling beneath, in the flooding radiance of his beneficence; it is fitting-it is beautiful.

4. It is always a blessed feeling in the soul-something that makes the soul quiet and happy; to refer all might and efficacy to God; all our achievement and prosperity to him; to feel the gushing thankfulness; to render praise for his bounties; to thank and praise him still, there is nothing this side heaven more like the essence and fulness of heaven's joy.

Finally. It is a feeling which will bring every person, truly and deeply cherishing it, within the circle and pale of God's eternal blessedness-the humility, the lowliness, the breaking down and the sinking of self, beneath the burden of your sins, these will bring you where Christ hung and bled; and standing there, and beholding that wondrous sight, with such a heart, taught its sins-your burden will fall. And the moment you bow in faith, your soul shall come and dwell in the favored circle of the redeemed and rejoicing in the kingdom of our God.

SERMON DCLIX.

BY REV. AARON L. LINDSLEY,

SOUTH SALEM, N. Y.

THE DAYS OF OLD.*

"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee."--Deut. xxxii. 7.

MOSES, the Leader and Prophet of Israel, was one of the most remarkable personages whose names have come down to us in history. He occupied a station of the highest responsibility ever entrusted to man; and he discharged all its obligations with the utmost fidelity. He elevated a race of bondmen into the dignity of a nation. He restored to them liberty, religion and law. His success as a Leader was not more remarkable than his wisdom as a Legislator and Teacher. And we admire his true greatness of soul when he ascribes all his successes to the direct interposition or the overruling Providence of God. His plans were accomplished because the Almighty was his guide. In every word he uttered, in every movement he made, he acknowledged himself

*A Discourse occasioned by the death of JEREMIAH KEELER, a soldier of the Revolution, delivered in the Presbyterian Church of South Salem, Westchester County, N. Y., Feb. 27, 1853,

to be the agent of the Most High, whose will respecting the descendants of Abraham he was commissioned to execute.

Having brought the numerous band of emigrants to the close of their long pilgrimage, he cites them to a grand review. The chief is about to resign his commission; for he and they must part before they cross the boundary of the promised land. His warfare is ended; he has fought his last battle; he will soon be at rest forever. At this point he addressed a farewell message to his countrymen, in the celebrated song, composed by divine command, of which the text forms a portion. He rehearsed the dealings, promises and threatenings of God respecting the Hebrews. He exhorts them to obedience by a review of God's mercies; and in this connection occur the words of the text: "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee."

He sends them for instruction to the past, while their gaze is intently fixed on the immediate future. The brilliant prospects opening before them might cause them to forget the lessons which their long abode in the desert should convey. The words of admonition were therefore timely and important. In all their career, they had never more needed the counsels of wisdom, and the guidance of God, than when they were about to enter upon their long expected possessions. The occasion demanded a careful review of the principles which they had adopted, and a reverent compliance with the will of that beneficent Being, who had chosen them for His peculiar people from among all the nations of the earth. By such a retrospect, they would discover the hand of God in the disposal of every event; and be able to trace, amidst the agitated and conflicting affairs of time, the steady current of an all-wise Providence in "the days of old," and throughout "the years of many generations." Their fathers could show them this unvarying course in the government of God: their elders could tell them of His revealed plans, His promises, and His faithfulness.

Occasions frequently arise, not only in the progress of nations, but also in the life of individuals, which justify the wisdom of retrospection. And we are naturally led to "remember the days of old," by the particular occasion which we have this morning assembled to honor with our mournful respect for the dead. It invites us to examine what our fathers have shown us, and listen to what our elders can tell us. We look with filial respect upon the man whose head is silvered by the ninety-third winter of his life. He is the remnant of an age gone by. The span of his existence sweeps the circle of a century. He stands by the wayside of passing generations an oracle to be consulted, a monument to be revered. His is a voice from the heroic age of our country, relating from memory the narrative of events which