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 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 lineation which had been contemplated with adoring wonder by holy men in ages past, found in him its living and glowing original. The wonderful display of power and beneficence, the pure, sublime, and benevolent doctrines which the predicted Messiah should do and teach, the same Jesus did and tanght. This is demonstration. Jesus of Nazereth is the Christ of God, and the doctrine which he taught is from heaven. But the fulfilment of prophecy not alone attests the Messiahship of Jesus, and the heavenly origin of the religion he taught. The peculiar and distinguishing characteristics of this religion afford a demonstration of the same truths, not less irresistible and overwhelming. It bears the signatures of Divinity. It is written all over, within and without, with heavenly characters. It has no likeness to, or affinity with, any system of philosophy or religion of man's devising. Whencesoever it had its origin, nothing can be more certain than that it never originated with man. It is not at all like him. Its mysteries bespeak a wisdom which is not in him. Its doctrines unfold a purity, spirituality, and an eternity, which constitute a perfect contrast to his pollution, sensuality, and undivided devotion to things of time. Its effects display a power of which not a single element is his. Its spirit, and the blessings it diffuses, express a benevolence which his selfish heart never felt, nor is capable of comprehending. The character of the religion of Christ is an irresistibly convincing attestation of its truth. "The gospel is its own witness." This religion is called the gospel from its nature and design. It is summarily characterized as glad tidings to men. For although it did not originate with men, and is wholly opposed to the spirit of men, nevertheless it is designed for, and adapted to them. Its design is to promote their highest good, to work entire changes in their vile natures, and fit them for the enjoyment of perfect happiness. It is a remedial and redemptive system, which completely repairs the ruins of sin, and restores fallen and depraved beings to the dignity and purity and immortal blessedness of the heavenly state. Mankind are lost-utterly lost. Here is found for them a complete salvation. They are guilty, and at deadly enmity with God. Here are terms of full and free pardon, and of entire and perfect reconciliation. They are depraved, polluted, and of consequence wretched. This renovates, purifies, and opens to them exhaustless fountains of joy and consolation. Yes, the religion of Christ is a heaven-devised scheme for the alleviation of human misery; an all-efficacious remedy for the mortal diseases of the human soul. It has compassions, reliefs, and consolations for every species of wretchedness to which our sinful race is heir, and asks nothing of them but a cordial and thankful acceptance of the proffered balm. It is the manifestation of a strange and inconceivable love-love to beings all unlovely, and hateful and disgusting. It is a love which none but the mind of God could conceive, and none but the heart of God could feel. The divine author of this blessed religion, who in the days of his incarnation, taught it by precept, and exemplified it by practice, was un ceasingly employed in relieving the various forms of bodily misery and mental anguish, and in teaching truths that made wise unto salvation, and were the eternal life of the soul; and he closed his earthly career by the sacrifice of himself amid personal sufferings, which no language can describe, and no imagination conceive, that poor miserable sinners might become heirs with him to the dignities and glories and joys of an eternal inheritance in heaven. But while his blessed religion embraces all mankind without distinction of birth or of condition in its compassionate regards, while its privileges and blessings are free to all alike—(and they are needed by all alike) to the king upon his throne, to the peasant in his hovel, to the rich man in his purple, and the beggar in his rags, to the wise in his wisdom, and the simple in his ignorance,-to the learned in his fame, and the illiterate in his obscurity,-it looks with an eye of peculiar benignity upon the poor of this world. It is emphatically, and by way of eminence, glad tidings to the poor. This speciality of regard to the poor is given by our Lord in the words of the text as the crowning evidence that his reign had begun. This, of itself, was sufficient to authenticate his mission,-to stamp his doctrine as divine. There was no principle in man to prompt him to regard with an eye of compassion and make special provision for the suffering poor. Among the most frightful exhibitions of human depravity, man's inhumanity to man is not the least conspicuous. The universal and unrelieved selfishness which pervades and constitutes the elemental principle of his depraved nature, precludes the conception, much more the execution, of any plan for the relief of the wants and woes of those who can make no return. Engrafted upon this selfishness is a feeling which leads him to despise and utterly neglect the poor because he is poor. For whatever of a contrary character exists among men we are indebted to the religion contained in the Bible. Unroll the volume of history-peruse the annals of a godless world during the ages preceding the advent of Christ, and of all heathen nations since that time, and point me to one single system of religion or of philosophy, or of civil policy, or of domestic economy, that had an aspect of kindness to the poor, and made any provisions for their relief and comfort. They were left to pine in want, and waste away by disease; to suffer, to agonize, to die, unrelieved, unpitied, and alone. They were held as nothing worth, and as sheep for the slaughter. The warrior valued them only as they might serve to fill up the legions he was remorselessly sacrificing to his lawless ambition. The statesman thought of them only while devising plans to protect the institutions of the state from the outbreakings of their undisciplined passions. The philosopher uttered no voice of instruction and admonition to them. The priests had no sympathy or consolation for their distresses. No man cared for their souls, or for their bodies either. We turn to the religion of God's chosen people, and here a heavenly light breaks upon the darkness of the poor man's destiny. God reveals himself as his friend and his avenger, and denounces the heaviest judgments upon those that op pressed him. Kindness to the poor is enforced as a solemn duty, and amplest provisions are made for their support and comfort in the Mosaic institute. This religion, then, could not be from men. But notwithstanding the divine directions and commands to care for the poor, the Jews did most inhumanly oppress the poor. It became a proverb among them that the "rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender," and that " the poor was hated even of his own neighbor." The prophets poured solemn rebukes and awful denunciations upon the ears of the Jews in respect to their apostasy in this matter, from the true spirit of their religion. "The spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of Hosts ?" Hence it was that the Prophets, when predicting the glorious influences of the gospel, and the blessings which the coming Messiah was to dispense, delighted in representing him as the friend of the poor. And so indeed he proved to be. When he came, he at once assumed this character, and called attention to this circumstance as indisputable proof of his divine mission. And a blessed and glorious day it was to the poor of this world, when the Son of God came down. They had become literally friendless among God's chosen people. Long before, had occasion been given for the proverbial saying among them, "That wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is separated from his neighbor," and that "all the brethren of the poor do hate him, how much more do his friends go far from him." And although they were commanded to open wide the hand, and were assured, that, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor, that the Lord would deliver him in time of trouble--would preserve him, and keep him alive, and bless him in the earth, and not deliver him to the will of his enemies, and would strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, and make all his bed in his sickness; and were admonished that he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker, but he that hath mercy on the poor honoreth him; and were warned to rob not the poor, nor oppress the afflicted in the gate, for the Lord would plead their cause, and spoil the soul of them that spoiled them;" yet so utterly had they lost the spirit of their holy religion, when the compassionate Saviour came, that he sternly rebuked those who made the highest pretensions to sanctity, for devouring widows' houses, and eating up the substance of orphans. And so entirely had they made void the law of God, that the sentiment was prevalent that duty required of them to refrain from acts of kindness to the poor. For, setting up the false standard, that the temporal condition of an individual was the criterion of God's favor to him, they looked upon the poor and wretched as suffering the just displeasure of heaven, and the extending relief to them as interfering with the righteous retributions of an offended God. This forlorn condition of the poor was illustrated by our Saviour in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus may be regarded as the representative of the suffering poor of that day, and the treatment of the |