longer in his well-begun course. He accepts the invitation, marries, is ordained, flourishes a while the wonder of the village. Five years afterwards, where is he, and what is he?

As we look through the land, we see not a few, any one of whom might have sat for this picture; and every one of whom is a standing proof of the injurious influence of sectarian divisions and rivalries. These divisions and competitions, by practically reducing the standard of ministerial attainments, rob the Church of a large amount of ministerial power. If it be said that this evil is not universal among the denominations, I reply, that gratitude is due to God for the preservation of any from its baneful effects.

I might proceed further, specifying particulars of perversion and waste of the energies of the Church resulting from her unholy divisions. But need I say more? How, my brother, can the Church of Christ consent to such an appropriation of resources that were given her by her Lord for other and nobler purposes? How can she afford thus to squander so much of her strength, when the whole, most carefully economized, is only suf ficient for the purposes specified in her charter of incorporation? And why does she persist in cherishing and perpetuating the reign of that spirit

of evil — Schism—a demon whose motto, worn on his brow in sulphureous characters, is -- Divide and destroy!

3. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISION IN WEAKENING THE DEMONSTRATION IN FAVOR OF OUR

RELIGION.

When Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, he prayed to his Father, as if for permission to raise his friend to life, and assigned as a reason, that he wished to convince the spectators of the divinity of his mission: "Because of the people that stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." And, after predicting a future event, he added, "Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." Standing alone in the world, he was obliged to furnish proofs in himself that he was the Sent of the Father, the Saviour long promised, long expected. To this end he employed miracle and prophecy, as the best adapted, in his circumstances, to produce the desired conviction. But, when he was about to leave the world, he selected another kind of evidence, that should be permanent and intelligible proof of the Divine origin of his religion. Addressing his followers, he had said: "By this shall all men know that ye are

my disciples, if ye have love one to another; thus indicating the way by which the world should ascertain their relation to their Master. But, addressing his Father in that prayer which he may have intended as a specimen of his sacerdotal intercession, he said: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be ONE IN US; THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME." And again, immediately after: "The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that THEY MAY BE ONE, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made PERFECT IN ONE; and THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT THOU HAST SENT ME, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." This oneness of Christians would be something new, and would attract attention. Nothing of the kind had appeared in any form of society, and the Saviour knew that human nature would never produce an association of unrelated individuals bound together entirely by love. There was nothing analogous to it in paganism, or even judaism. A people drawn together from all nations. and all classes; of all possible temperaments, all gradations of intelligence, all diversities of custom; and so subdued and assimilated in their moral

feelings as to constitute a unity, having "one heart and one soul," would indeed be something extraordinary, a moral wonder, such as the world had never seen, and such as would carry conviction to the most reluctant and sceptical of the presence and prevalence of a supernatural agency.

In this exhibition by Christ of a great principle, we have a key that opens to us, in part at least, the secret of the astonishing success of the early Christians. "Union is strength," says every one capable of articulating a truism; and when it is uttered, the main idea is doubtless physical. Rivers united form the mighty Mississippi. Snow-flakes united form the irresistible avalanche. Atoms united form the mountain barrier. Battalions united form the victorious army. States and provinces united make the powerful empire. But who remembers that the mere fact of union may in itself, apart from all action, be power? Entirely apart from the aggressive movements of the primitive Christians, apart from all their preaching, exhorting, praying, there was an unconscious influence acting upon observers; their affectionate harmony, their oneness of spirit, produced upon the world impressions favorable to their character and to the claims of their religion. As the result of the union, multitudes were led to think better, not only of them, but also of their Master, and to

open their minds the more candidly and receptively to their heavenly message. Tertullian says that this fact commanded the attention of their enemies, and called forth expressions of admiration;1 and he reckons the brotherly love and concord of the Church among the primary elements of her moral power. Gibbon, whose principal work is envenomed with subtle sneers and malignant satires, aimed at a religion which he hated the more the less he understood it,- even Gibbon, in his attempts to account for the rapid propagation of early Christianity, a fact which he admits and endeavors to explain without an acknowledgment of any superhuman agency,-assigns a number of causes, and this as one of the most efficient the union that subsisted among Christians. Poor man! why did he not, in a manly spirit, examine the nature and the causes of that remarkable union? He perceived the relation of the two facts as antecedent and consequent. Christians were affectionately united, and therefore were successful wherever they went with their message. What was the antecedent of the former fact, the Christian union to which such results were largely attributable? There was a department of truth which depravity was afraid to approach, and the intellect, restrained

1“Vide, inquiunt, ut se diligunt; et pro alterutro mori parati sunt."