theirs the only authorized ministry, theirs the only valid ordinances, and that all not connected with their communion, are out of the appointed way of salvation, and must be left, like the heathen, to uncovenanted mercies, if any, I say, insist upon dogmas like these, breathing only the spirit of bigotry and narrow-mindedness, the best way to treat them is that adopted by our Saviour in the case before us. Do not dispute with them, do not assail their prejudices; but treat them kindly; pity them and pray for them; and strive, when you converse with them, to bring them to a better frame of mind, to think of their sins and of their personal need of God's mercy to pardon and save them.

3. In his conversation with the woman of Samaria, our Saviour aimed to show her the worthlessness of all mere forms of worship, by leading her to entertain just views of the nature of the true, spiritual worship of God. The opportunity was most favorable for giving instruction on these points, and our blessed Lord improves it, not for the benefit of the woman only, but of all who should become his disciples in after ages. At the point where she brought forward the main dogma of her faith, that Mount Gerizim was the appointed place of worship the Saviour meets her with the declaration, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father. Hitherto the public, solemn worship of God has been confined to one place. It has been a matter of dispute whether that place should be Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. That controversy is now of little importance. A new, spiritual dispensation is about to commence. The peculiar rites of Judaism are to cease; and the worship of God, no longer confined to a single place, is to be observed everywhere, and with as much acceptance in one place as another. It is not the place, it is not the outward form that God regards in his worship; but the heart, the spirit, the frame of the inner man. The hour is coming, yea is, when external rites and ceremonies as connected with worship are to be accounted of no value in themselves; and the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. The reason assigned for this follows,-God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This is one of the first truths of religion, and one of the sublimest truths ever presented to the mind of man. God is announced as a pure, spiritual Being; invisible, eternal, present in every place. This being his nature, he dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things. A pure, a holy, a spiritual worship is therefore alone adapted to his nature; that alone he seeks, or requires, the offering of the heart, the homage of the mind, the devout, reverential, subjection of the soul to him, the all-perfect Jehovah, the eternal infinite I Am. How does instruction like this put to flight all the silly notions that men have invented in regard to times, and places, and rites, and forms of worship? God is a Spirit, a great truth; and it follows irresistibly from this, that if we would worship God acceptably we must worship him in spirit

and in truth; our hearts, our souls must be in our worship; all forms, all ceremonies, however exact, however costly, are nothing without this; and with this, our worship is right and acceptable to God, wherever paid and in whatever forms.

III. Let us pass to notice, thirdly, the happy consequences which resulted from the manner in which our Saviour treated the woman of Samaria. And,

1. Her prejudices were gradually subdued, and her mind was opened to listen to the instructions of the divine Teacher, with candor and docility.

2. Drawn away from her excessive and bigoted regard to things outward and non-essential, she was made to think of her person alsinfulness, and to feel her need of renewing grace-pardoning mercy. Hence,

3. There is reason to believe that she was converted, became a Christian and an heir of heaven.

4. Through her instrumentality, or in consequence of the change wrought in her and her zeal in reporting what she had seen and heard of Christ, many others of the Samaritans came from the city to hear him for themselves, and became his disciples. All this is evident, as you may see from a perusal of the narrative from which our text is taken. But I cannot enlarge. Our blessed Lord, seeing the fields white unto the harvest, multitudes flocking from the city and surrounding villages to hear him, was persuaded by the people to tarry with them two days. And many more, it is said, believed, because of his own word; 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. Now all this resulted from the manner in which our Saviour treated the woman in question. He entered into no dispute with her. He did not directly attack her prejudices; but led her along in the most kind and winning manner, laying open great, spiritual truths to her view, til at length awakened, convinced and converted, she renounced her bigotry, turned from Gerizim to Christ, learned to worship God in spirit and in truth, and showed the sincerity and earnestness of her faith, by striving to bring others to an acquaintance with him whom she had chosen as her Saviour's King.

The change in her was great and most happy, as it was also in those of her countrymen who believed in Christ. Convinced of the great truth that God is a Spirit, and that all acceptable worship of him must be from the heart, sincere, internal, spiritual, they were no longer disposed to quarrel about places and modes of worship; but were anxious only to prove themselves to be of those true worshippers, who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. A Christian church was subse

quently gathered there, and for many generations Christianity flourished there with much purity and power. At length war in its successive ravages swept away the city; laid waste the surrounding country; and now all that remains of ancient piety and of the pure worship of God are the ruins of two churches-one in Sebastie, the ancient Samaria;

the other near to Jacob's well, where our Lord held the discourse, on which we have been remarking, with the woman of Samaria.

The lessons which I have wished to impress on your minds, my friends, by what I have said, are these.

1. To show you the nature, evil and cure of bigotry-a moral malady, very prevalent in our day, and not a little contagious. Its nature is to make great things little and little things great; to attach an overweening importance to things outward and non-essential, and to maintain these things with an obstinate, exclusive spirit. The evil of bigotry is to beget and cherish a bad spirit in those who are the subjects of it; to narrow and to sour their minds; to pervert and make void the great essential truths of the gospel; to delude and destroy men by leading them to trust in dead forms and ceremonies, to the neglect of charity and the love of God; and finally to spread through the community where it prevails, the fruits of jealousy, alienation, sectarianism and strife. The cure of it, as we learn from our Saviour, is not in disputation, or in harsh denunciatory dealing, but in kindness, in pity, in forbearance, in drawing away the mind from its fond, overweening attachment to things outward and little, by opening to its view and pressing on its attention the great, fundamental, spiritual truths of religion. Here is the cure of bigotry. It is a disease of the heart, rather than of the head, and no applications are likely to remove it, which do not tend to make the heart better, to expel selfishness and pride from the bosom, and inspire there the love of God and the love of man. I wished

2. To show you, from the example of Christ, how you should treat bigots. The Samaritan woman was a bigot. She believed that her's was the only true church, that Mount Gerizim was the only place where God could be acceptably worshipped, and that the priests of her order were the only ones authorized to minister in the things of religion. It was a hard case, very hard. You have seen how the Saviour treated it. He did not dispute with her; he did not denounce her; he did not rail at her, or ridicule her; but compassionating her weakness, and her folly for holding such notions, he conversed with her in such a manner as to conciliate her kind feelings, and thus prepared the way to let in the light of great essential truth upon her mind, which converted her from her bigotry and made her a true disciple of Christ. This is the right way; and it is the only way that is likely to be of any avail in curing or correcting the bigotry of our times. We see it pre vailing widely around us. In various quarters, and in different sects, persons are rising up, both laity and clergy, who greatly magnify little things; who are for ever insisting upon the importance of certain rites and forms in religion; who claim that they are of the only true church, and in the only appointed way of salvation. Now I do not know that all the disputing and arguing, of which there has been so much in these last years, have availed to convert or to cure a single one of the many who are infected with the bigotry indicated by such sentiments. Such disputing and arguing may have operated, and I think have operated, as a sanitary measure to keep others from taking the disease;

just as we draw a cordon around a place where the yellow fever or plague prevails; but it is more than I know if a single one, already under the power of the disease, has ever been recovered by the means referred to. Another remedy must be used; and what that is you may learn from the example of the Saviour in the case we have been considering. A high churchman, a bigot, whether he be Congregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Jew or Mahometan-and the spirit in all of them is essentially alike-is not, I think, primarily to be approached with disputation and argument. He is beyond the reach of these. The first effort should be in the way of pity, compassion and kindness, just as we deal with diseased persons; and then, avoiding all dispute on points of controversy, seek to fix the attention upon the great, spiritual truths of religion such as relate directly to the soul, to God and salvation. This method is likely to be blessed of God; and whether it succeed or not, you will have the satisfaction of having imitated the example of Christ, and must stand approved of him.

3. I wished, in selecting the subject of my text for your consideration, to lead you to a just view of true and acceptable worship. It is, that it be of the heart, of the spirit; that it proceed from a mind deeply and solemnly affected with a view of God as a Spirit, pure, holy, invisible, everywhere present; and that it be offered to him in true sincerity of soul. This is the worship which is due to our God; the worship which he requires of us; which alone is acceptable in his sight, or can be of any benefit to ourselves. This worship, it is our privilege to know, can be rendered to God at any time and in any place. It is not confined to the cathedral or to the church, and is not limited to the Sabbath or to any one day or hour of the week. In the house, by the way, at home, abroad, kneeling in the closet, or bowing in the great congregation, God, the eternal, ever-present Spirit, is near to us, and we may worship him in spirit and in truth. He knows our wants; his ear is attentive to our cry; and never can we be in a situation, where we shall not have the privilege of bowing down and worshipping him, the great Eternal. But while the spirituality of God thus presents him to our view as ever present with us, to regard and accept our worship, it shows us also that no worship can be acceptable to him, which is not in spirit and in truth; proceeding from a mind reverent of the divine majesty, penetrated with a sense of unworthiness, and moved with a sincere desire of his favor and glory. All other worship but this, wherever paid and in whatever forms, is but empty breath in the sight of him, the great Searcher of hearts, with whom we have to do. Let this thought possess your mind whenever you kneel in the closet, bow in the family, or enter the sanctuary to worship. God is there, is here, to notice the frame of your spirit, the thoughts and feelings of the inner man; and while he will graciously hear the humble and contrite in spirit, and bestow all needed grace and help, he will frown upon the proud, the insincere, and the worldly, however gorgeous the forms, or imposing the rites in which their worship is paid.

SERMON CCCLXXII.

BY REV. GEO. W. EATON,

PROFESSOR OF CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, HAMILTON
LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, NEW YORK.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.

"To the poor the gospel is preached."-Luke vii. 22.

THE religion of Jesus Christ is authenticated by evidences the most luminous, copious, and incontestable. Two classes of these evidences are presented in the passage from which our text is taken, viz. the fulfilment of prophecy, and the peculiar and distinguishing characteristics of the religion itself. The whole verse reads as follows, "Then Jesus answering said unto them, go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." The circumstances in which these words were spoken by our blessed Lord must be familiar to every reader of the New Testament. John had been cast into prison for his fidelity and boldness in rebuking iniquity in high places, and hearing there of the works of Christ he sent to him two of his disciples with the inquiry, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" In other words, art thou he that cometh, i. e., the true Messiah, or must we expect another? Jesus did not give a direct reply to the interrogatory, but having in the presence of these disciples of John performed many beneficent miracles, by which various forms of misery were removed from the wretched sufferers, he bids them return and report to their Master what things they had seen and heard. He refers John to the marks of the true Messiah predicted by the prophets and especially by the prophet Isaiah (the language of our Saviour here being nearly a literal quotation from one of this prophet's predictions concerning the Messiah). These marks he himself exhibited. The prophecy was fulfilled in him ages before the inspired Seer," rapt into future times," had described the character of the Messiah. All the extraordinary and superhuman traits of this wonderful character stood out in bold and striking relief: so that when the real personage should make his appearance there need be no difficulty in identifying him as the one of "whom Moses and the prophets wrote." Jesus of Nazareth realized the prophetic representation. He presented a living exemplification of the strange and mysterious combination of divine and human attributes ascribed to the Christ of God. Every feature of the inspired de