source for aid. Mahomet was occupied three years in making fourteen converts. After seven years effort, when he fled from Mecca to Medina, he numbered but one hundred and one followers. Neither the religion of Mahomet, nor any of the forms of paganism carried with them their own inherent evidence of their truth, and of their divine origin; nor has that great and Almighty Being who governs the moral as well as the natural world, given them any testimony of his approbation. The Bible on the other hand, carries with it this evidence of its divine origin, that it is attended with the mighty power of God. When the despised Son of Mary hung upon the cross, who would have thought that the religion of which he was the Author was destined to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea? Who would have thought, that contrary to all human probabilities, in opposition to all human power, and striking as it did a deadly blow to all the idolatry of self, it would have so triumphed over error, superstition and wickedness, changed the heart of man, the form of human society, and the religion of the world? Look a moment at this wonderful fact. Here is a system, the leading principles of which are not discoverable by the lights of nature and reason, a system that is to be propagated not by force, but by conviction, becoming the living religion of all the nations of the earth. At the expiration of forty days after the death of its founder, it numbered one hundred and

twenty followers; immediately after, three thousand; and soon after, five thousand more. In the progress of a single century, it extended itself, over Syria and Lybia, Egypt and Arabia, Persia and Mesopotamia, pervaded Asia Minor, Arminia and Parthia, and even large portions of Europe. Unfolding as it did God in human nature, declaring as it did the substitution of the innocent for the guilty, insisting as it did upon a radical transformation of the human heart,-principles which are to the Jew a stumbling block, and to the Greek foolishness-it entered upon the conquest of the world. The learning of Athens, the wealth of Corinth, the pride of Rome bowed before it. It waved its standard amid the refinements of civilization and triumphed over the degradations of barbarism. No climate arrests its progress; no form of human society can exclude it. Everywhere its effects are the same; the same its illuminations of the understanding, its convictions of the conscience, its renovation of the heart; its holiness, its hopes, its joys, its prospects the same. It is natural to ask, whence this success? Never was a change wrought in the character of man by means so simple, so unostentatious, so utterly at war with all the pride and egotism of the human heart. We see no power proportioned to the effect. What was it? It cannot be difficult to see what it was. God was with it. The secret of its success is found in the attendant power of its Author. No natural causes can account for

such a phenomenon as the wide extension and the hallowed effects of the Bible. It is a phenomenon altogether unique in its kind, and produced only by the instrumentality of truth under the broad seal of heaven. Nor have its triumphs ceased. These commendations and honours are not flowers thrown upon its tomb. The moral efficacy of the Scriptures is demonstration that they are "living oracles,” and that the word of God is "quick and powerful" beyond all other power. Men are conscious of the spiritual excellence it reveals and imparts. When we can look round upon this magnificent and beautiful creation, and doubt whether it is the work of the divine hand, then too we may look at the effects of the Bible, and doubt whether they discover the work of the divine mind. And this they will discover more and more. The evidence is accumulative, and accumulating every hour. It is unlimited, but by the boundaries of the earth; it is prospective, and shall never terminate, but with the end of time. Not only has the gospel made rapid progress in our world, but it shall make still more wonderful progress. The Spirit of God has but begun to descend. The chief part of his work and reward is yet in expectation. These Scriptures go forth, not only under the sanction, but under the promised, assured, effectual, and still more abundant blessing of their Author in time to come. He has said, "As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but water

With

eth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." the Bible in their hands and the Spirit of God among their people, the ministers of salvation "shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before them into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." With this influence, the wilderness shall be turned into a paradise, and Lebanon into Carmel. The Bible will march onward in defiance of all the indifference of a world that lieth in wickedness, of all the arts of philosophy, and all the virulence of relentless persecution. While other religions, devised by human wisdom, and propagated by the secular arm, shall be seen to possess no self-perpetuating power, and pass away, and leave no memorial behind them; the religion of the Bible shall live, and be diffused, and find its triumphs in the moral purity and happiness of "a great multitude which no man can number." Myriads, by this gracious influence, will yet be delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's

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dear Son; and myriads more will yet rise 66 up an exceeding great army," from the valley where there were "bones very many and very dry," and where breath came upon them from the four winds. Go and stand in the midst of some of those numberless scenes of wonder and of mercy, of sovereignty and of omnipotence, where the Spirit of God has moved the assemblies of his ple; where hundreds have trembled as on the verge of wo; and where, after the storm was past, the voice of mercy has whispered divine peace, and awoke their everlasting song; and you may appreciate, in some small degree, the love and power of the Holy Spirit. If you look forward to what this celestial Comforter will yet accomplish, when the great mass of human minds shall be subjected to his gracious influence; when so many hearts shall be purified, and so many lives renewed; when every land shall be redeemed from its corruption and bondage, and the world assume a character which shall be the counterpart to the great truths which this divine agent impresses on the soul; with overwhelming gratitude may you recognize the pre-eminence of his great work. We anticipate with confidence the ultimate triumphs of the Bible because there is no inconstancy of purpose, no weakness, no despondency in the mind of the Spirit. The work of the adorable Saviour was finished, when he bowed his head and sunk upon the cross; while the ever-blesssed Spirit has but just entered on his wonder-working career. It is