as they do His own. They disclose, moreover, what vast resources are available for the prosecution of this work, if only the Spirit of God were poured out from on high, to make us think more of the spiritual wants of perishing millions, and less of our personal comforts. In primitive times, it was not until after the day of Pentecost, and when "great grace was upon them all," that "as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet." So in our own day, after all the scriptural arguments that we can urge, it is to be feared that, without a fresh baptism of the Spirit, no great and general advance will be made in the direction of a more adequate support of the Church and her schemes. But let our exalted Head bless us with a pentecostal effusion of His spirit, and then will a pentecostal spirit of bountifulness follow. For the bestowment of this blessing let us petition the throne of heavenly grace; and let us ask it in the connexion in which Chalmers prayed for it, when he said, “O Lord, put the grace of Christian liberality into the hearts of very many of the Church's friends; and as the fruit of powerful and efficient preaching, on the one hand, grant that, on the other, there may be willing hearers in readiness to place at the disposal of the Church's rulers what may be expedient for the Church's good." In connexion with the subject of a revival of religion, to which these observations point, let me say, with no disposition to indulge in unwarrantable regrets and lamentations as to the low and dead state of religion among us, that, judging by the Bible standard, there are, nevertheless, many things in the religious aspects of the Church and the community which every friend of vital godliness must deplore. I speak not of the scepticism and indifferentism and practical ungodliness which so lamentably prevail outside the Church. But even within our congregations, it cannot be doubted that many are strangers to a saving work of the Spirit of God on their heart, and are living in worldliness, formality, and spiritual apathy. Of the whole number of our members, comprising not much short of 300,000 souls, how few comparatively are personally and actively enlisted in promoting Christ's cause. How many, on the contrary, are guilty of needless associations with the world, as a fruit of which their tone is lowered and their influence for good destroyed. Instead of the religion of knowledge, faith, duty, and Christian usefulness, there is substituted the religion of a barren orthodoxy that moves none of the springs of action; or the religion of mere form, in which the worshipper contents himself with the bare observance of ordinances, without having his soul brought in the use of them into contact with spiritual realities; or perhaps the religion of feeling and emotion, which, without either the knowledge of doctrine or the practice of duty, finds a pleasurable indulgence in the transitory impressions produced by the style in which gospel mysteries are set forth. Who, then, will question our need of awakening displays of God's power and glory in connexion with the preached Word? What cause for the prayer, "Oh! that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down; that the mountains might flow down at thy presence !" Now, if by such prayer as this we express our conviction that God alone can enrich us with more abundant measures of spiritual life and earnestness, it is not to be forgotten that His gracious interposition is to be looked for in connexion with the use of means. And the means which He may warrantably be expected to bless are just His own institutions. These must not be displaced by instrumentalities of man's devising. If we are favoured with a genuine and permanent revival, it will be in connexion with a more earnest and prayerful employment of all the ordinances which Christ has appointed, and has promised to bless, for the conversion of sinners, and the instruction and progressive holiness of believers. (1.) Foremost comes the ministry of the Word, God's grand instrument for the salvation of men. With reference to this, says Fuller, "It is well known what sort of preaching it was that produced such great effects in many nations of Europe about the time of the Reformation. The reformers were so far agreed that the doctrines of human depravity, the deity and atonement of Christ, justification by faith, and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, were the great topics of their ministry." Again he says, "Since the Reformation all who have been eminently blessed to the revival of practical godliness, like their predecessors before-mentioned, have dwelt principally on the Protestant doctrines of man's lost condition by nature, and salvation by grace alone, through the atoning blood of Christ, together with the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit." And if these doctrines, faithfully set forth, were honoured with such eminent success by the Spirit of God in past ages, we may depend upon it that, if we would see a return of the times of reviving and refreshing which through means of them were enjoyed, the same grand fundamental doctrines must continue to supply the subject-matter of our discourses. (2.) The eldership is a second institution of the Redeemer of invaluable importance to the spiritual prosperity of the Church. Let the duties of this office bo discharged with fidelity, and wisdom, and Christian love; let the holder of it prove himself the Christian friend and spiritual counsellor of those committed to his charge; let him embrace every favourable opportunity which distress and death afford for impressing the lessons of the gospel on the subdued and softened mind; let him interest himself in the religious education of the young, at once their fatherly adviser and watchful guardian; and let his own character exhibit that personal religion and those domestic virtues which he inculcates on others, and what a mighty impulse must be given, by the united influence of thousands of such agents, to the revival of vital godliness, and the strengthening and settling of our people in the faith! (3.) The office of deacon, with respect to such effects, is only second in importance to that of elder. He who holds it is required to be a pattern of zeal in the cause of God. His motto should be, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." When his visits among the flock are those of a man animated by such a sentiment, and such as the first deacons were" of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom" -few things can contribute more efficiently to keep alive a sense of the importance and value of divine things, a sincere regard for the interests of Christ's kingdom, and to maintain in a congregation a high spiritual tone and standard. Finally, I would have all parents and heads of families in connexion with our Church to consider that, in every genuine and lasting revival, much must depend on the faithful discharge of duty by them. The home is the nursery for the Church; and in proportion as it is purified and elevated by Christian influences, we may expect the cause of religion to flourish in our land. And (as we are instructively reminded by the case of Iois and Eunice) as none have a greater fitness for the task, nor enjoy more favourable opportunities, so none are generally more honoured to uphold and perpetuate the knowledge and influence of vital spiritual religion in the world than pious women, and especially pious mothers. (Applause.) By God's blessing on the means and influences to which I have referred, may we expect Him to communicate spiritual life at the first, and subsequently to maintain and increase it, among a people associated under Christian rule and order. Let the means be employed hopefully, in the confidence that He is willing to render them effectual. And should the blessing descend, and His work of revival prosper in any of our congregations or neighbourhoods, even though attended with accompaniments with which we would dispense, let us remember that it is not for us to sit in judgment upon it in a fastidious and captious spirit; but to welcome it with grateful hearts, to separate what is sound and scriptural from its opposite, to foster it, and to direct and improve it to high spiritual ends. It is surely incumbent on the Church, having prayed for revival movements, to wait and watch for them in an expectant attitude-to look for them within her own borders, and to look also for those more general visitations of the Spirit which extend to the openly careless and ungodly, who have hitherto lived in shameless contempt of divine things. Instead of leaving such movements to the direction in many cases of inexperienced and unqualified persons, would it not far more honour the Spirit of God, prosper the work, and obviate evils that are apt to hinder it, were the Church, through her office-bearers and courts, to place herself at the head of it, as a work which God has committed to her guidance, requiring of her in its behalf the exercise of the same watchfulness and fostering care which He has promised to exercise toward herself? "I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Fathers and brethren, I must now hasten to a close. The time has come for me to bid you all an affectionate farewell. I do so with an unfeigned sense of the kindness and courtesy which I have experienced at your hands as the occupant of this chair, and of the indulgence which has been extended to my defective performance of its duties. I do so also under a solemn impression that "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." How changed the aspect of the Assembly to those who knew it in Disruption times! "Our fathers, where are they and the prophets, do they live for ever?" "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh." Yes, man dies; but the cause of God lives, and will live on for ever; and it is the one thing worth living for during the few short years of our pilgrimage. Oh let us part, cherishing the prayerful desire that this glorious cause may gain some impulse from our having lived on the earth; and that, through our personal devotion to it, and the high moral and religious enterprise of those who come after us, when another twenty-five years of our Church's history shall have passed, though many of us shall then have been gathered to our fathers, the closing century may find Jerusalem a quiet habitation, and peace upon Israel-our children united in the bonds of Christian fellowship and love, and walking in the fear of the Lord—our beloved country the fountain-head of all Christianising influences, the enlightener of the dark places of the earth, the protector of the persecuted, the sanctuary of the oppressed, the nurse of arts, the inviolable abode of peace and purity, of truth and virtue and freedom. (Much applause.) The Assembly was then closed with praise and prayer at a quarterpast eleven o'clock. |