SERMON XVIII.

THE REVIVAL OF CHRISTIAN PIETY
AND EFFORT.

HOSEA X. 12.

"Sow TO YOURSELVES IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, REAP IN MERCY; BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND: FOR IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD, TILL HE COME AND RAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS UPON YOU."

THE methods of operation in the great Economy of Nature are so fixed and certain, that we call them laws. Planets, in their wide circuits, come back again to the same point at the given moment. Light falls in an invariable direction. The seasons succeed each other in a uniform course. Seed-time and harvest cease not from the earth. We are so assured of what we thus denominate the laws of nature, so confident of their issues, that we form and found the rules of our own conduct upon them. It has always proved a safe experiment thus to act: it would be utter fatuity to go against them. These laws retain a majestic constancy,—if ever seemingly deranged, easily repairing themselves, if ever interrupted for a little while, quickly renewed,— meekly but irresistibly resenting every inroad upon their order and every violence upon their sanctity. It is only proper to add, that when we speak of Nature in this sense we intend Him who is above all, and through all, and in all: and by these laws we but denote His continued volition and agency. It is a fastidious scruple that objects to this language as if it thrust away the Deity from the superintendence and jurisdiction of His own works. It finds its origin, and may plead its sanction, in Scripture. "If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord:" evidently implying their inflexibility,-the reasonableness of

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suming on them, and their distinctness so far from Him, who first established and still maintains them, that they may become proofs of his attestation and grounds of his appeal.

From these indications of things we derive much general guidance, and we regulate ourselves conformably with them. We compute our time by the splendid mechanism of the firmament.We attend to our health by ascertaining what our bodily constitution prompts, seeks, requires, rejects: we obey these suggestions as to congruity, capacity, and temperament. We cannot seize this blessing independently, or in disregard of certain physical principles. We must treat certain phænomena and affect certain susceptibilities by particular agents and under particular conditions. Life can be preserved, and its vigour be promoted, only by what is agreeable to its own organization.-The tillage of the earth is subjected to the same system. The soil has its powers, the productive quality of the seed is evolved and germinates by those powers of the soil,-both are elicited by the influence of light, warmth, moisture, and ventilation. The husbandman would be a maniac who should expect a crop from the soil without seed or from the seed without soil, or the active manifestation of the properties belonging to either without the vivifying excitements of the atmosphere.

But in our spiritual relations we are often visionary. We are guilty of a fanaticism which in other instances we should despise. We anticipate effects without causes, and ends without means. We are surprised and angry, if all do not immediately succeed. Though we lay no plan, though we ply no effort,-we are bitterly disappointed if we receive not the instantaneous reward. We grasp the sickle when we ought to put our hand to the plough: we would bind the sheaf when we are summoned to cleave the furrow. We would reap that whereon we have bestowed no labour.

Yet in the one husbandry we may fail of recompense. Our labour may be frustrated. Desolation may sweep our fields: mildew and blasting may wither our harvests. That which is stamped by experience with a general certitude, is not absolutely sure. In the other, however, the connection between exertion and

recompense is indissoluble. Nothing can be squandered here. Nothing can run to waste. There spring up, from the rudest ground and most scattered seed, noble germs and precious fruits. The thought, the aim, the aspiration, are speedily modified, and take bright shapes and enter enduring forms. All lives again, and is multiplied to an indefinite extent. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have showed toward his name." We need be harassed by no suspense: we may be tried, our personal feelings may be thwarted, our sanguine presentiments may be delayed, but there can be no real nor final mortification. "Let us not be weary in welldoing for in due time we shall reap if we faint not."

Now no one charges on them who cultivate the ground, any act of profane arrogance in cooperating with God. The chemical ingredients with which He has endowed the earth lie dormant until then. Even upon those ingredients there might be divine arrest. This cooperation with the processes of nature is invited by them, and because ordained, is necessary to their perfection. Man is as requisite as the ground which catches the sweat of his brow. He is as much a part and instrument, as any thing upon which he acts, in this vast magazine of contrivances and laboratory of results. "Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley, and the rye in their place ?"—Is this the stealth of some secret into which he should not dare to pry? Is it the usurpation of some forbidden power? "His God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." Nor is it an unholy interference when, in the province of religion, we take all pains and use all exertions to secure justly expected and certainly promised accomplishments,-conscious at every step, and at every instant, that the Infinite Power alone can crown our labour with efficiency and bring it to maturity.

The Text lies closely to these remarks. Its analogies are drawn from the most common pursuits, and most confident calculations, of agriculture. The glebe is to be prepared, the seed is

to be deposited, the rain is to be awaited, the harvest is to be gathered, the God of all is to be sought and implored and blessed! Every thing is in its place. One entire system is adjusted to our view. It hangs with a perfect poise. Divine decretion encourages and directs human agency,-the one is beheld in all its peremptory prerogative, the other is traced in all its readiest freedom. We must entertain no partial ideas, no disconnected opinions. We must think in the parallelism of these principles and in the coordinateness of these rules. There must be neither rivalry nor collision. Portions of the great scheme of truth, they must discover the most natural symmetry and agreement: they are of the same essence and tendency. The imaginary discordance may only remind us of certain repulsions which we observe in the universe, antagonisms which seem incapable of reconcilement, yet conducive to a real agreement, obeying an imperial attraction, holding in the less that they be subjected to an ultimate law and be impelled in an harmonious march. "The shock of corn shall come in its season," if we break up the ground,-pray for the rain, -sow in righteousness, and diligently secure the harvest. At successive intervals there shall be seen the riven clod,-the mellowed mould,—the sower going forth to sow,—the cloud dropping fatness, the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear, the sun ripening it into its flush of gold,—the Lord of the harvest assigning the luxuriant spoil,-while "we shall not have planted and another eaten, but shall long enjoy the work of our hands."

We feel for the lost race of man. We would not turn aside their right, nor subvert their cause. The claim has deeply fixed itself upon our conscience. Our professed subjection to the gospel of Christ leaves us no license for a hesitating judgment,— no pretext for a doubtful course. Pastors are filled with a suspense of hope and fear whether their spirit can meet this exigent crisis of Missions, and whether their people will respond to it. There are great searchings of heart. The Church is stirring up its strength. We may sin by impatience. We may forget our duty in our hope.-Let us suggest those principles of action,— those grounds of confidence,--those ripened results,—which this inspired passage unfolds.

We will, in the FIRST PLACE, explain the GENERAL TERMS

OF THIS EXHORTATION.

The word which will require the fullest explanation, as it offers the greatest difficulty, is righteousness,―occurring twice in the verse.

There can be no doubt that its radical idea is that of simple equity, the righteousness which we ascribe to our Maker. This is commonly coupled with judgment: "I am the Lord which execute Judgment and Righteousness in the earth." “I will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet." But in no use of a word is there so great a concordance between the Old and New Testament writings, as in this. It has in each all the exactness of a term of art: all the precision which belongs to technology. It denominates, when connected with an exercise of mercy, the method of pardon on the basis of a honourable transfer and a moral equivalent. It is the righteousness of God,-His way of justifying the ungodly through a righteousness, — by faith. He declares his righteousness in the remission of sins. Mercy and Justice are not rival claims. Justice is a form of good, the precaution of benevolence. Mercy is a safeguard of rectitude, the boon of right. Justice has no vindictiveness to appease: Mercy has no fondness to indulge. In them we behold the oneness of the Divine Nature. There is no shadow of turning. The rays of moral glory commingle. They shine with equal lustre. They beam in the same direction. They create a common light. Righteousness and salvation are, therefore, often placed together and employed as convertible terms. The garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness belong to the same array. In the same vision righteousness goeth forth as brightness, and salvation as a lamp which burneth. This is the fitness, and beauty, of the theory of our religion. never knows his deep offence but in his pardon. He never recognises the grandeur of the Lawgiver until he experiences his clemency. Every thing impresses his own unworthiness. Every thing exalts the government beneath which the forgiveness is vouchsafed. A holy effect is secured. Mercy grows awful, as Justice becomes tender! We fear the Lord and his goodness,

The sinner