NATIONAL PREACHER. ORIGINAL-MONTHLY. FROM LIVING MINISTERS OF THE UNITED STATES. EDITED BY REV. J. M. SHERWOOD. VOL. XXIII. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY J. M. SHERWOOD, 120 NASSAU STREET. 1849 CCCCXCI.-The Inefficiency of the Church, and the Remedy. CCCCXCII.-The Warning Voice...... CCCCXCIII.-Solomon's Experience and Observation. CCCCXCV.-The Richest Treasure... CCCCXCVI.-Hope of Republics; or the CCCCXCVII.-The Magnanimity of the THE AMERICAN "And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou ?”—Genesis, 47: 8. ANOTHER year has passed away! Its days, its hours have been all swallowed in the vast abyss of the infinite Past. Its transac tions belong now to the province of history. Memory may recall them, and by her magic power cause their pictured resemblances to rise before us; but never again can they be living events: just as the portrait of a beloved friend may make that friend vividly present to the eye of the mind, while the sweet voice is silent, and he beauty of form and the grace of motion have been hidden in the tomb. We have a power over the Past, which we have not over the Future: and the past sways us as the future cannot sway. We may, in fancy, live over again our past existence; while the utmost stretch of fancy cannot reach into the secret lurking-places of "coming events." We have the faculty of memory by which we may recall; but no faculty with which man is endowed will, of itself, enable him to foresee. The Past has a strong hold upon It is acquainted with our ways, with all our secret thoughts. It holds the record of our doings, good or bad. It can touch the springs of conscience, and kindle the fires of remorse. It is fraught with a testimony that affects our character and peace. The Future can affect us only when faith enlightens our vision, and when in its light the voice of the Past speaks cheeringly, r with bitter reproach and condemnation. The Past can teach us. In order to be instructed by the Future we need the light of revelation. The Past, though gone from us, is, in a certain sense, ours. We have lived in it; our lives have taken a coloring from it; in it us. we have exerted an influence on the world; our weal or woe is linked with it. But the Future is not ours; it is altogether beyond our reach. Yet in that future we must live. That too in its turn must become our Past. And so we go on,-on, for ever; each moment casting behind us a portion of time, yet having still before us an infinite future; each moment diminishing that portion of time which is bounded by the grave, and has been allotted by an all-wise Creator as a period of preparation for that existence which is beyond the grave, and has no limit. And now another grand division of time has disappeared; not a moment, merely; not a day, but a whole Year-a large portion of our little period of probation. Not one Sabbath only; but fiftytwo of those sacred days have passed away, with all their holy influences and precious privileges. And we stand at the commencement of a New Year; we enter to-day upon a new cycle of Sabbaths. We penetrate still farther into the future. Our earthly journey is not yet finished. A new stage is reached. With seemingly accelerated speed we press on to its termination. Do no reflections peculiar to such a period press upon our minds? Does not the rolling year speak to us? Is it not fitting that we should now give heed to the voice of the past year, and learn what preparation we have made, for the toils and temptations, the joys and griefs, the prosperity and the adversity, aye, and the struggle with death which may await us in this new year upon which we have just entered? That year has gone gone with its sighs and tears, its pleasures and delights, its deeds of wickedness and of folly, its acts of benevolence and love, its prayers, and praises, and lowly confessions, and sacrifices of broken and contrite hearts. We look back upon it and what do we behold? Shall I pause to speak of the shaking and overturning of thrones and dominions, of the exile of monarchs, of the births and deaths of princes, of the triumphs of liberty, of national prosperity and renown, or national adversity and disgrace? Do our hearts shudder, or do they swell, and the blood grow warm in our veins, at sight of deeds of cruelty and oppression, of diplomatic fraud, of wholesale butchery, of the downtreading of the poor by a cold-hearted aristocracy or a gain-loving caste, and of the out-breaking of riotous passions, and the disregard of law? Do we weep as we behold the fires of bigotry, of sectarianism, and of persecution? Or do we rejoice as our vision is greeted by the banner of the cross waving on the hill-tops of Syria, and the plains of India, and our ear catches the song of thanksgiving and praise that rises from the Isles of the ocean? Do we count with joy the converts who flee to the ark of safety? Or do we mourn as the desolations of Zion force theraselves upon our view? The past year, my brethren, is full of such sights and sounds. |