TEXTUAL SERMONS.

Original.

A LARGE portion of the ministers of the present day have laid aside the textual mode of preaching. They select their themes or topics, write out their sermons, and then, because good taste requires it, select a text and attach it to a moral or theological essay, which they read or pronounce to their congregations,-and call this preaching the gospel.

A large mistake-else our opinions are erroneous-which we do not deny may be the case.

If a minister is ambitious only of personal credit, and thinks more of his own reputation for scholarship and oratory, than the honor of God and the glory of Christ, this course is undoubtedly the best for him to pursue; not otherwise.

But his work is to save souls; to pray men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God; and if he can secure this great end best by discoursing on some topic, well, we demur not; but still, we think that great advantage may sometimes be derived to the cause of Christ by expounding a text, or a number of texts which are connected by narrative or the thread of dis

course.

It may be objected that such a course would render sermons diffuse and cumbersome. We know it does, unless critically guarded; and so does the opposite course render sermons dry and didactic, unless prepared and delivered with special care to avoid such a result.

The young minister should aim to become a workman that needeth not to be ashamed;" and by all legitimate modes of proclaiming his message of mercy, win souls to Christ.

We present the following, as tolerable specimens of original sermons, one of which-the first-is textual in the strictest sense.

SERMON LXXVIII.

THE SINNER ARRAIGNED.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silent; thou thoughest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

Psalms 1. 21, 22.

HERE the sinner is arraigned, and judgment is rendered. Let us analyze the process.

I. The indictment. Items.

"Seeing thou

1. Contempt of wisdom-hatred of instruction. hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee."

2. Dishonesty, extortion, robbery. then thou consentedst with him."

"When thou sawest a thief,

3. Licentiousness. "And hast been partakers with adulterers." 4. Profanity. "Thou givest thy mouth to evil."

5. Hypocrisy. "And thy tongue frameth deceit."

6. Cool malignity. "Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother.

7. Evil speaking-slander. "Thou slanderest thine own mother's son."

II. The light in which sinners view, and the manner in which they treat the Divine forbearance.

"Thou thoughest that I was altogether such an one as thyself." That is, the sinner acts as though God were like himself in the rectitude

1. Of his views.

2. Of his principles.

3. Of his character.

III.

The warning and doom of the sinner.

Warning.

1. "But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes."

2. "Now consider this, ye that forget God."

Doom.

1. "Lest I tear you in pieces." Resistless-terrible. 2. "And there be none to deliver." Hopeless.

APPLICATION.

1. God's ways are equal. His law is "holy, just, and good." 2. We have violated that law, and are justly condemned. "These things hast thou done."

3. The longsuffering of God has been great toward us. "And I kept silent.

4. Nevertheless, there is hope, and we may be saved. "Now consider, etc., lest I tear you," etc.

"Now ;" not to-morrow.

"Now," it will be too late by and by.

"Now;" delay not another moment.

"Now;" Christ is waiting; "believe, and thou shalt be saved."

SERMON LXXIX.

THE ACCEPTED TIME.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians vi. 2.

Therefore consider this, ye that forget God, there are two grand devices of satan, and mistakes of men:

1. Unbelief. "God will not save us now."

2. Impenitency and procrastination. "He will save us when we die."

Let us consider

I. What is the accepted time."

It is

1. When God offers to accept the person of sinners, and pardon their transgressions.

2. When sinners can comply with this offer.

II. What is meant by "the day of salvation."

1. If it refers to Christ, it means the day of his flesh-birth, temptation, agony, resurrection, ascension, intercession.

2. Referring to the Holy Spirit, it signifies the time when he applies the merit of Christ's death, etc., and saves the sinner,(1.) From stupidity, by awakenings.

(2.) From guilt, by pardon.

(3.) From restlessness, by peace and joy.

(4.) From a spiritual hell, by a foretaste of heaven.

(5.) From all sin, by righteousness and sanctification. III. "Now is the accepted time," etc.

1. Now the Father calls.

2. Now Christ intercedes.

3. Now the Spirit strives.

4. Now-to-day-the sinner may be saved.

APPLICATION.

1. Behold, consider. Let not satan, the world, or the flesh, blind and deceive you.

2. Behold, remember how short is the time of salvation. A day. "Tis passing, and soon will be gone.

3. Behold, lay it to heart. "When once the master of the house is risen up and shut to the door," etc.

SERMON LXXX.

THE WAY OF THE LORD PREPARED.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Matthew iii. 3.

EXORDIUM.

ALL ancient monarchs of the East employed men in all their expeditions to go before them as heralds or criers, to prepare their

way.

Christ is a monarch; the "Prince of the kings of the earth;"— and when he was coming into the world to save sinners, he sent John before him as his herald, saying to the Jews-" Prepare ye the way of the Lord."

Christ is yet a king-going forth to conquest; and ministers are his heralds, to announce his coming, etc.

We do it to-day. We call on the church to "Prepare the way of the Lord".

I. In our own hearts.

We can and must do this,

1. By rigid self-examination.

2. By godly sorrow for past sin-delinquences.

3. By humble faith and holy living.

II. Among the people.

1. By feeling ourselves, and imparting to others, a strong and solemn sense of the polluting and damning nature of sin.

2. By obtaining and inculcating a proper sense of the worth of the soul.

3. By forming and executing an inflexible purpose to work for God.

4. By confession-by taking up the "stumbling-block."

5. By personal effort, in connection with agonizing and prevailing prayer.

ENCOURAGEMENT.

1. While John was yet preaching-"Crying in the" etc., Christ come. So will it be with us.

2. We have Divine assurance. Saith God, in Malachi iii. 10: "Bring ye all the tillers," etc.

IMPROVEMENT.

Brethren, can we answer this question-Why is the coming of the Lord among us yet delayed?

A MINISTRY FOR THE TIMES.

BY THE EDITOR.

NO. I.

It has ever been a grievous curse to the world, and a calamity to the church, that her ministry has been exceedingly prone to degeneracy. From the days of Constantine, this has been especially the case. In many instances, in all these intervening ages, ministers have been the first to deteriorate in piety, and backslide from God; and O! the countless throngs that have been seduced into apostacy and ruin by their pernicious example! Who can doubt, had the church always been blessed with a faithful ministry-apostolic and devoted-that the world would now have been luxuriating in the pure enjoyments and glorious revelations of the millenial era? Surely, the ramparts of the kingdom of darkness would not have been brazen and colossal as they are to-day; nor would they have constituted, as they now do, the dread enclosures within which are perishing six hundred millions of heathen for whom Christ died!

From the fourth to the sixteenth century the pall of the pit hung over the church and the world. It was a long and gloomy period, almost impervious to spiritual and heavenly light. The greedy lion came up from his nethermost lair and went roaring among the nations for his prey. Impiety, blasphemy, and rebellion, a trinity of demons, dared to assert the Divine place and prerogatives, and from an enthroned position, sanctified by the consecrating oil of the church, send forth a voice in contradiction to Heaven, which practically nullified the doctrines of revelation, and the morals of Christianity.

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Then Luther was born; then Luther was converted; then Luther spoke in contradiction of the Pope, and hurled defiance to the "Man of Sin," and from the heights of the Wartburg sent forth