Our examination of this subject prepares us to understand in what sense we believe the being who walked Judea, was a man; in what sense we believe he was God, and to see the overwhelming evidence which sustains our belief in his divinity. He was, and is, and ever will be a man. That human soul that began its existence as the "babe of Bethlehem," has not been annihilated. By its union with the Divine nature, it has not become God, or been clothed with a single divine attribute. It is still a human soul. As upon earth its powers and faculties were unmingled with the divine, but under the teachings of the Divinity within grew in knowledge and in holiness, so will it be in eternity. Under divine teachings, most rapidly will that human soul advance in every intellectual and moral perfection. Under such exalted training, fed by Divinity itself, no doubt it has already far outstripped every other created intelligencewhile with still more rapidly expanding intellect, it dives into the deep things of God, and reaches out toward infinite knowledge, and yet will never sound the infinite depths of God! Though thus united and enthroned with Divinity, he will ever be one of our race, the counsellor, the instructor of his people-our elder brother.

Still will the divine Being, who veiled his Divinity with human flesh, wear our nature glorified. God the Son will be the Lamb in the midst of the throne, who will receive the honors and the worship of heaven.

In that glorious being God and man will be reconciled. God and man will be united. He will be the pledge for God's lasting love. He, as the representative of the race, will show the oneness into which God has taken his people, for as he is one with God, we shall be one in him. Christian friends, what awful glory do these truths throw around the cross of Christ! As we stand near the mount of suffering, we are prone to regard only human agony and human woe-to forget that Deity was enshrouded in that suffering, dying form. The whole mystery of redemption we may not here fathom, but we know that were the Lamb, the co-equal partner of the eternal throne, to lay aside the glories of heaven--to come down to earth and give himself into the hands of men and devils, to be insulted, mocked, spit upon and crucified-it would only be a repetition of the scenes of Calvary! Could we gaze upon such an awful scene and behold the dying victim?

"Well might the sun in darkness hide,

And shut his glories in,

When God, the mighty maker died,
For man, the creature's sin."

Well may we glory in the cross of Christ, and the gushing blood of the Son of God, that has washed away our sins. Let

us draw near with grateful love unto Him who is our life from the grave. We shall soon behold him whom we now love in his risen glory, and rejoice before him evermore.

For us, for each one of us, he trod the wine press of the wrath of God. Who of us will deny that sacrifice, tread under foot the blood of the Son of God, and count it as an unholy thing? He shall come again in the clouds of heaven, crowned with the glory of the Father, to receive his friends to himself, but to take terrible vengeance upon his despisers. Where, then, shall each one of us be found?

SERMON DCXLV.

BY REV. LEVERETT GRIGGS,

MILLBURY, MASS.

GOD AND MAMMON.

"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."-MATT. vi. 24.

MANY things were once regarded as impossible that are now of easy achievement. What would have been thought, a half century since, of our present modes of locomotion by land and by water? Had the idea been suggested, that man would ever plough the deep or hasten over the face of the earth by the agency of steam, it would have been pronounced impossible. Equally unbelieving would our fathers have been about the possibility of riding in the air, and communicating intelligence by lightning. But so it is. Men rise from the earth, and float about in the heavens-beneath or above the clouds, just as they please, and then return again in safety. And by the magnetic telegraphi intelligence is spread from one city to another with the rapidity of thought. This is, indeed, an age of progress and achievement. The improvement to which we allude, is not confined to the arts and sciences. Religion has felt the quickening spirit of the age. New methods have been devised for bringing the truth of Revelation in contact with the minds of men, and thus extending the Redeemer's kingdom. Our benevolent institutions, which are the glory of this age, were not known to our ancestors; and, perhaps they would have regarded such organizations as impossible.

There are not a few who look for improvement, not only in the means of propagating the Christian religion, but in the system itself. Or rather, they look upon one system as waxing old and vanishing away, and giving place to another in quick suc

cession. Such persons regard the Bible as an antiquated bookno more inspired than other books-well enough adapted, perhaps, to the ages in which it was written, but obsolete now. They might possibly acknowledge that it was not too crude and coarse for the times of Richard Baxter, or the more recent age of Jonathan Edwards; but they protest against it as a book for the present day of light and progress. They do not esteem it as a sufficient rule of faith and practice, made under the direction of the Spirit of God, and adapted to every age of the world, and all classes of mankind.

Such persons might demur at the declaration of our Saviour in the text. They might say, This asseveration of Christ was, perhaps, true eighteen hundred years ago; but astonishing changes have occurred since, wonderful progress has been made in religion, as well as in other departments, and the wise have discovered how they can serve God and Mammon! If there is any truth in the maxim, that "actions speak louder than words”—if by their fruits ye shall know them, then it is clear that there are many who would fain be reckoned among this class. They are connected with the visible family of Christ, and are hopefully his friends; the world, also, they eagerly pursue, and cannot be said to have renounced it. They profess to serve the Lord, and at the same time they are not wanting in the most conclusive evidence that they serve the world. Such persons, if any, may claim to have conquered impossibilities-to have acquired the wondrous power to serve God and Mammon.

The kingdom of Christ consisteth in righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is established in the heart of every true Christian. But many who professed to have received it, have been engaged in wars of aggression and extermination. Their brightest laurels were gained on the field of blood; and yet they are canonized as saints. If so, they served God and Mammon. Our holy religion is humane and benevolent. Its cardinal principle-its essential nature-is Love. It teaches one to love God with all the heart, and his neighbor as himself. This every professed disciple of Christ is understood to do. But how many there are who hold their fellow men in bondage-buy and sell, and treat them as cattle and sheep; and how many more that oppress and grind the face of the poor, and yet have reputation for piety. Such surely must have learned to serve God and Mummon, if any have ever made the attainment.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; and a wo is denounced against those who put the bottle to their neighbors' lips and make them drunk. But not a few have been engaged in this very work who were connected with the Church of Christ, and have thus been accessory to an evil that has filled poor-houses and hospitals and penitentiaries, which has sent poverty, wretchedness and wo to many habitations, and hastened millions to a

dishonored grave and a miserable eternity. If men who have done such things were christians, then they were successful in serving God and Mammon.

In former days the sabbath was regarded in some good degree according to the commandment. It was a day of rest for man and beast. But now a person may be professedly a child of God, and, at the same time, have from two to twenty horses going every Lord's day for purposes of business or pleasure! Such men are helping the ungodly in the way to ruin, and are doing more to undermine and overthrow the institutions of our beloved country, I verily believe, than all the powers of despotism and infidelity combined. If such men are christians, then they must have learned to serve God and Mammon.

It used to be regarded as wholly inconsistent with that sobriety and decorum that mark the christian character, to mingle in these vain and bewitching amusements to which the world are so much attached. But now we have members in our churches that love to sit at the card table, join in the giddy dance, and sometimes visit the theatre! They have discovered the art of serving God and Mammon, as they appear to think. They have learned how to mingle the pleasures of sin with those of religion, so as to enjoy them all together. It should be a matter of thanksgiving with such that things have so altered in this age of progress and improvement, that the world and the flesh can be freely enjoyed; and as for the devil, in the minds of many, he exists only in those old puritanic notions that were long since exploded. No selfdenial now-no crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts -no painful warfare against sin and Satan-no more need of prayer and watchfulness against the temptations and snares of the world. If we keep up with the age, must we not alter one of Watts's stirring hymns, so as to have it read thus ?

I shall be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,

Whilst others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas.

There are no foes for me to face;
I must not stem the flood;
This world is now a friend to grace,
To help me on to God.

If this theory of religion, which some are reducing to practice, should be carried out, may we not expect revivals of an improved type? Will not our children and youth learn to serve God and Mammon so perfectly, that they will assemble in the dancing school one night, and crowd the inquiry meeting the next, asking with breaking hearts, what they shall do to be saved?

Let these things, which are growing in many churches in the city and in the country too,-let them be carried a little further,

and we shall have made the sublime attainment already reached in some cities on the continent of Europe, where under the same roof provision is made for that united service, which, in the text, is pronounced impossible. In one end a church; in the other a theatre. In the one place, the people meet Sabbath morning for religious worship; in the other they assemble in the afternoon, for vain amusement and the pleasures of sin. Thus they have learned to serve God and Mammon; and not a few in our own land are in danger of imitating this example.

It is time to take a more serious view of this matter. I cannot for a moment suppose that the members of my beloved church regard the Bible as a relic of antiquity merely, unsuited to the present age. You believe that it is the Word of God, a perfect rule of faith and practice for all men in all ages of the world. You have no idea that the disciples of Christ ever have, or ever will be able to serve God and Mammon. This is impossible in the very nature of things. I need not stop to show you the dif ference between the two masters; the difference in their service, and the different results to which it leads. You have an intelligent and correct conviction on these points. These being settled, there are some very solemn and weighty duties that devolve on all- the followers of Christ.

I. They should carefully mark the line that divides the church from the world. There is a broad distinction between the people of God and all others. The latter are dead in trespasses and sins; whereas the former are quickened into life, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus. They have new hearts, and are renewed in righteousness and true holiness, after the image of Him who created them. Having experienced such a great and radical change, it is reasonable to expect in christians, feelings, tastes, desires, aims, and efforts entirely different from those that once characterized them. Mark then, first of all, this difference of character. It is as great as that between light and darkness-between life and death.

Running the dividing line from this starting point, you will be able to discover a difference in the life between the church and the world. The reading, the conversation, the pleasures and pursuits of the latter are, in many respects, very unlike those of the former. Christians have delight in the law of the Lord, and in his law do they meditate day and night. Sensible that for every idle word they must give account, they endeavor to have their conversation seasoned with salt, that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hear ers. They remember the requirement that whether they eat or drink, or whatsoever they do, they should do all to the glory of God. With these principles in mind, the christian will generally be able to determine questions that may arise respecting duty