there is the broadest possible distinction to be made between the one and the other; and the principles which would forbid the latter, not only do not necessarily restrain the former, but may fully allow, and even imperatively require them.

The Christian teacher must always remember, and his hearers must always remember in forming their estimate of his teaching, that though it is the dispensation of the Gospel under which we live, yet the world has not yet fully realized the Gospel; nay, the Church has not yet fully realized it. In the Church of Christ the kingdom of God is, and yet is not, come to us. It is come according to the Divine ideal of that Church-in the purpose of God-in that view of His which embraces the future as though it were the present. But it is not come in so far as sin and Satan still maintain their contest with truth and holiness. Theirs is a losing cause, but not yet a lost one;

they are being cast out, but are not yet cast out; the Church is being saved,* but, as a whole, is not yet saved. Still, therefore, are we under a dispensation which is, in some sense, preparatory. Still is there a sense, and a most true sense, in which the message of the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, is applicable to us, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Still must it be our daily prayer, "Thy kingdom come." And if this be so, still must there be room, nay, still occasion, in the Church, for the Lord's prophets to prophesy in the spirit of Elias, and to reiterate the testimony that "now is the axe laid to the root of

the trees;" and that “ every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, will be hewn down and cast into the fire."

I have said (as others have said again

*See Acts, ii., 47, where it is well known that the expression rendered, “such as should be saved," means "such as were being saved," or "were in the way, or placed in the state of salvation."

and again—so often that it has become a commonplace and a truism) that moral suasion, as opposed to external compulsion, is the agency by which men are to be wrought upon to repent and believe the Gospel. But, brethren, what is moral suasion? Is it confined to attracting by promises, to winning by gentleness, to working upon the softer feelings of the heart, to the exhibition of the tenderer aspects of the Divine nature? Is it, I say, confined to this? Assuredly not. It is the same apostle who employs that earnest language of what we commonly understand by persuasion, "We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God"-it is the same St. Paul, and in the same Epistle, nay, in the same chapter of that Epistle, who writes in this strain of warning, "We must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to

that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord"-being ourselves fully alive to the "fearful thing" it is "to fall into the hands of the living God ”— "we persuade men"-we bring to bear upon them the same awful considerations as have wrought with such convincing power upon ourselves.

Yes! believe me, dear brethren, the "still small voice" may whisper Beware! no less than Welcome!-Tremble! no less than Be of good cheer! Nay, hereafter it will be the same lips-the lips of that Son of Man who "came, not to destroy men's lives but to save them," which shall say, first indeed (and oh! may it be our's, every one of us, to receive that summons!) "Come ye blessed"; but afterwards, "Depart ye cursed "-"Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire!"

LECTURE VI.

THE TRANSLATION AND SECOND COMING.

ST. MATTHEW, xvii., 11.

Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

OUR review of Elijah's history would not be complete without some reference to the letter which is recorded in the twenty-first chapter of the second book of Chronicles, as having been addressed by him to Jehoram, King of Judah.

Jeroham was the eldest son of Jehoshaphat, and had married a daughter of Ahab's. Having been designated by his father to succeed him on the throne, he no sooner gained possession of regal power, than he exerted it to put to