from the cross might be the first to follow him into Paradise. Seated on his glorious throne the same purpose of grace fills his heart; and the most signal triumphs of that grace are in the conversion of such as Saul of Tarsus.

If, now, in face of these undoubted facts, you, even in thought, question his willingness to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him, do you not undervalue the saving efficacy of his blood, and impeach his faithfulness to fulfil his word? O look away from such impious and soul-destroying notions to the long suffering so clearly set down in this Gospel pattern. If Saul obtained mercy, so may you. The doubtful question is not whether he will save you if you believe, but whether you will ever embrace his offered mercy. This is a doubtful question. There comes a voice from heaven saying, "Son of man, can these dry bones live? Can these Gospel-hardened sinners ever be converted?" The only response we dare make is, "Oh, Lord, thou knowest; no eye but thine can look through the dark future and see who of us shall lie down in everlasting sorrow." And then, turning away from those secret things which belong to Him, I exhort you, by the mercy of God, and by the value of your own soul, "give diligence to make your calling and election

sure."

Impenitent man, it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. Now and again God puts goads into your soul; and it is not without a struggle that you silence your conscience, and quench the Holy Spirit. He was scattered all along your way to perdition, influences which you cannot resist without many a pang. He has spilt the blood of the cross upon that path. Is it not hard for you to trample on that precious blood? He has sprinkled that path with the tears of Christian affection. It is not hard for you to resist the appeals of those whose heart's desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved! He has set up all along that path the patterns of those with whom you are linked in the most intimate relations of life. Is it not hard for you to refuse the example of a believing wife, or parent, or child? He has poured around that path, the light of the Gospel, shining above the brightness of the sun; and every day he calls to you from heaven, saying, "Why persecutest thou me-why do you reject my love and neglect my great salvation?" Oh! can you, without hard struggles, refuse to fall prostrate and cry, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Alas! if you tell us you have become insensible to these appeals, so that it is not hard for you to trample on and blunt their sharp point, then has the question of your salvation become indeed a doubtful problem. God's whirlwind may rend the old and gnarled oak that has breasted the storms of a hundred winters. His earthquake may turn the course of the river that has worn its deep channel in the rock for centuries. But this is not the usual course either

of his providence or his grace. He bends the young and tender sapling. He turns the course of the infant stream as it springs from the fountain. His converting grace achieves its chief triumphs in the soul that is not yet hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. How suitable, therefore, is the lamentation which the prophet puts into the mouth of impenitent old age: unto us! for the day goeth away, and the shadows of evening are stretched out!" And with what emphasis do the words of wisdom come home to the hearts of the young, "Remember now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come"-before the heart is absorbed by the world, and hardened by the deceitfulness of sin-before the affections become insensible to the melting love of Christ-before the long-suffering Spirit of God is grieved and provoked to abandon the soul to its own devices; even now obey every heav enly voice, follow every thread of gracious influence that would lead you to the Saviour, put forth every Divine impulse within you to lay hold on eternal life.

SERMON DCCII.

BY REV. HENRY J. VAN DYKE,

PASTOR OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BROOKLYN, N. Y.

POLITICS FOR CHRISTIANS.*

"Render, therefore, unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."-MATT. xxii. 21.

Ir is a question of great importance how far the discussion of civil and secular matters should enter into the ministrations of the pulpit. In the practical decision of this question, we have been accustomed to look for guidance mainly to the example of Christ and his Apostles. We believe that example was intended to be a perfect pattern for us. It was written for our learning, and has, therefore, all the binding authority of a Divine law.

Nor let it be supposed that this law has become inapplicable to us by the lapse of centuries or the peculiarities of the present

age.

* Preached Thanksgiving Day, November 20, 1856.

In regard to all the principles which govern men's civil and social relations, "that which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and there is nothing new under the sun." All the great moral questions which are now connected with either political or social life, were at issue in the Apostolic age. And how did Christ and his immediate disciples treat them? Upon examination we find these three facts:

1st. They never discussed any civil or temporal matter except in its moral bearings. They never entered into the consideration of mere secular profit and loss. In all cases the prime question with them was, what is right towards God and towards

man.

2nd. They never, in the discussion of any question, assumed a partizan attitude. In regard to most of the disputes which divided men into contending parties, they stood entirely aloof; and whenever they felt called upon to act as arbiter between them in regard to any question involving moral principle, their decisions were always given in such a way as not to excite party hostilities. And yet,

3rd. They fearlessly applied to men of all parties the great principles of truth and righteousness. These three observations are strikingly illustrated in the history from which the text is taken. Judea, in the days of Christ, was a subjugated province of the Roman Empire, and as such, was subject to all the hard exactions of its iron-handed government. The people were divided into two parties, in regard to the duty of submitting to this foreign yoke. The Pharisees, on the one hand, contended earnestly for what they considered the Divine right of the Jews, to be free; and bitterly opposed the payment of that tribute which was the badge of servitude. On the other side, the Herodians advocated a cheerful submission to the Roman Government, and defended the payment of tribute as both wise and just. Here, then, was an opportunity to lay a snare for the Great Teacher. They determined to enlist him as a partisan in this dispute. And it mattered not much for their purpose which side he assumed. If he identified himself with the Herodians, he would at once lose his influence over the great mass of the people, whose hatred to the government was inveterate. If he espoused the side of the Pharisees, he would become obnoxious to the Roman authorities, and his enemies would be able to prove the accusation that he perverted the nation and forbade to give tribute to Cæsar. The plan thus cunningly devised was adroitly executed. Some of the Herodians respectfully approached him, and with many flattering words, propounded the question, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or no?"

But he perceived their craftiness; and with a skill, which it would have been well for his church if his ministers had always imitated, he avoided on the one hand the peremptory and zealous tone of a partisan, while on the other he fearlessly set forth those great principles of right which would apply to all parties. As to the particular question about paying tribute, he declines to give a direct answer. But then he charges it home upon their conscience that they are bound to pay Cæsar whatever they owe him. If the government were de facto in bis hands, if they received the protection of that government, and if the very money in their pockets bore the image and superscription of the Roman, the very relation which they sustained to him as subjects to a ruler created obligations; and he left it for them to decide whether the easiest and most natural expression of those obligations was not the payment of tribute. And yet, at the same time, he would remind them that this duty to the government was not their only or chief obligation. They owed a debt to God, which was not only consistent with the duties they owed to the State, but so intimately connected, that one could not be faithfully discharged separately from the other. "Render, therefore, unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

I think you will agree with me that the text, as thus expounded, presents a suitable theme for discourse on the present occasion. We are assembled as citizens, at the invitation of our rulers, to unite in our annual thanksgiving to God. It is to be hoped that our thank-offering will not be the mere utterance of formal praises; but that bearing, as we do, the image and superscription of God, we are here to consecrate our living selves in all our possessions and relations, as a tribute to the King of kings. Do we not need instruction as to how we can make this living sacrifice acceptable? What theme, therefore, is more suitable for our present meditation THAN THE DUTIES WE OWE, AS CITIZENS, TO GOD AND TO THE STATE. Keeping the example of Christ in view, and relying on your Christian charity, if, through weakness, I should deviate in anywise from that perfect pattern, I proceed to a plain and practical discussion of the subject.

I. The duties which we owe, as citizens, to God. Here we make three observations :-that the claims of his everlasting kingdom should stand first in all our plans and efforts,--that a sense of accountability to him should control us in the discharge of our civil duties, that we should practically acknowledge the supremacy of his word as the rule of right.

1. The claims of God's everlasting kingdom should stand first in all our plans and efforts.

Patriotism is one of those natural impulses which it is the design of religion not to eradicate but to chasten. He is not a

true man, much less a true Christian, whose soul is so dead to the generous emotions that link us to kindred and birth-place, as never to exclaim "this is my own, my native land." If Paul, looking back from the world-wide scene of his Apostolic labors to his home in Tarsus, could say with evident satisfaction, "I am a citizen of no mean city," how much more may we glory in the goodly heritage which the God of the whole earth has given us. And yet this natural patriotic impulse needs to be chastened, lest it degenerate not only into a selfish national prejudice, but into forgetfulness of God. And how can it be chastened more effectually, than by a habitual regard for those higher relations by which every Christian is an heir to an eternal heritage? Now, brethren, "ye are no longer strangers and foreigners; ye are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God." High as may be our appreciation of this land's goodliness, and it may safely be affirmed that we cannot too gratefully estimate its blessings,-yet have we another and a better country. We have taken the oath of allegiance, and been naturalized into the citizenship of a kingdom which excels this infinitely more than the green valleys of the Jordan excelled the wilderness of Sinai. We know not what fate is written for our country in the secret volume of the future. He has read the history of the past to little profit, and looked with but a dull eye on the judgments that have ever been abroad in the earth, who does not sometimes feel that disunion, and strife, and ruin may yet be ours; so that the departed glory of old Israel shall be forgotten, amid the hissing of the world over the self-destruction of another and more glorious Canaan. But then we do know that God's kingdom cannot fail. Whatever may be the vicissitudes of its progress, it shall ultimately prevail over the whole earth; and we know, too, that we have a lot in that kingdom. We owe it, therefore, to God, as well as to ourselves, that our first regard should be fixed on this everlasting inheritance. When the cry of the owl and the bittern comes up to us from the site of cities whose memorial has perished with them, seeming like the voice of destiny in regard to all human empires; when danger looms up, now and again, like a dark storm-cloud, on our political horizon; it is a blessed relief to fall back upon our heavenly citizenship, and fix heart and hope on God's everlasting dominion. Yea and our allegiance to him requires that we should acquiesce, and even rejoice, in the overthrow of any government which stands in the way of that dominion. "I," says the voice of the Almighty, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until he whose right it is shall come." If it be needful for the maintenance of thy right, O thou King of Glory, that the sands of oblivion should cover the monuments of our national greatness, thy will be done. Let every one who would render to God the things that are God's, say Amen.