had some cause for their clamor, Cæsar himself had no reason to be alarmed, and no excuse to persecute. Into this kingdom enters Onesimus, the servant of Philemon, and into this kingdom how gladly would have been received the king Agrippa, almost persuaded to be a Christian! Upon this subject of the interference of Christianity with men's civil relations, we need only quote the words of the Apostle: "Is any man called being circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised. . . . Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing," slavery is nothing, and freedom is nothing, "but the keeping of the commandments of God." Further; as the kingdom of Christ, in its establishment, gave no offence to the reigning powers, so it received support from none, while it gave support to all. While it was making men fit to leave the world, it fitted them also to live peaceably in it; and a good subject of Christ was also a good subject of any government on earth. for tolerance, and it gave peace in return. tered the most cruel opposition. Even the benevolent and enlightened Trajan could persecute and burn a Christian without remorse. And what, think you, my friends, would have been the fate of a temporal power, attempting to establish itself, at such a moment, in the centre of the Roman empire? Nay, what, think you, would have been the fate of Christianity itself, if it had then constised, like the religion of many of its professors at the present day, in its public institutions, in the number of its churches, in the reception of the sacrament, in the baptism of children, in the hearing of sermons, and in the peace and splendor and quiet of a church? Thank God! there were subjects of Jesus then existing, to whom the honor and love of their Master were dearer than life. Thank God! there were

It asked only Yet it encoun

hearts beating with the influence of the gospel, though its rites were secret, and its assemblies small and despised. Hence, when the temples of Christ were burning, the sanctuary in the heart was untouched; when his professors were led to the stake, his subjects were multiplied, and Christianity flourished, though its rites were suppressed, and trodden under the foot of power.

But, my friends, this picture of poverty and persecution is soon to be reversed. This kingdom, which was not of the world, is soon to be united in its forms to the kingdoms of the civil world. Its professors rise to dignities in the empire; the emperor himself adopts it to strengthen his throne; the ministers of the gospel aspire to worldly dominion, and endeavor thus to extend, by the same victory, the borders of the empire and the limits of the church. All is security and wealth and pomp and power without. The empire is Christianized, but yet Christ has hardly gained a subject. Amid all this splendor, the meek spirit of the gospel is lost and overwhelmed ; and, after this professed union of the religion of Jesus with the establishments of the world, corruptions, divisions, superstition, and ecclesiastical dominion, more to be dreaded than the hordes of northern barbarians, which overswept the empire, desolated the church; and they have transmitted their deadly influence to these remote ages. Truly, if this work had not been originally of God, it would long since have been destroyed by the very encouragement its profession has received.

We have thus seen that our Lord's kingdom was not of the world in its origin; that it sought no aid from the world. in its establishment; that it interfered not with the kingdoms of the world in its extension; and that it receives

no real support from a union with the powers of the world in its interests.

Consider, in the third place, the subjects of this kingdom, and its spiritual nature will more clearly appear. Do not look for them, my friends, in that long roll of Christian emperors, beginning with the reign of Constantine. You may traverse the galleries of the imperial palace, and pass through the retinue of courtiers, and, I fear, you will hardly meet a disciple of the humble Nazarene. Do not look for them in the pompous martyrology of persecuting saints, who swell the calendar of the Romish church. I am compelled to say, too, that you must not look for them among those dignitaries who have lorded it over God's heritage, or among those barefooted and bareheaded impostors, who have concealed a vain and aspiring temper under the cloak of pretended mortification. I do not deny that a humble and holy spirit may reside under the purple and the ermine, while a proud heart may beat under haircloth and rags; yet, to find the subjects of Jesus, we must often descend to mean abodes, and often penetrate the recesses of domestic life, where we most often find the humble, the pure, the just, and pious, of whom the world has too often been unworthy.

These are they who have passed through great tribulation; men who have attained an enviable superiority to the pleasures, the pains, the honors, the riches, and the poverty, which surround them. No man can claim the privilege of this government, who has not subdued his passions to the authority of Christ. He seeks no doubting characters, who wish to be indulged in a partial attachment, who are ready to give up one vice, if they may be allowed to retain another, but who revolt at the first bribe which

the world offers. Especially does Christ disclaim those subjects who have taken his name because his religion is popular, and who hope to reap the advantages which may be connected with a profession of his doctrines. The rewards of his kingdom are intellectual and heavenly. They are not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. The records of Christianity are humble; and this is an inconceivable consolation to the follower of Jesus, when he mourns over the degeneracy of some and the insensibility of others, that millions will appear in the rolls of future renown, whose names have never been seen in the page of history, and never reached the ear of any but the almighty Judge of the secrets of the heart of

man.

It is time to close with a few reflections. If such, then, be the spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ, we infer,

First, that this kingdom will remain, when all the states and empires of the world shall have passed down the ́stream of time, far out of the reach of human recollection. How has the map of the world been changed, since the introduction of the religion of Jesus! There is not one of its old divisions to be traced. Where now is that cruel Jewish Sanhedrim which crucified the Lord of Life? Where is that proud Hebrew commonwealth, which saw with such malice the rising kingdom, and strove in vain to crush the infant church? Nay, where now is that famous Roman empire, composed of so many mighty nations, in the midst of which Christianity sprung up, like a tender shoot in a forest of lofty and aged trees, which have since decayed and fallen around it, and left it tall, spreading, and vigorous? Where now is that long train of persecut

ing emperors, who wasted their resources in exterminating the humble subjects of this kingdom? And not only so, where now are the empires with which it was incorporated, and which lent it their support? They have fallen. But Christianity has not fallen. "Fear not," then, "little dock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom" which cannot be destroyed.

Again; we may infer from this subject what the religion of Christ truly consists in. You, who understand by it the assumption of a peculiar name, tell us, where was Christianity, before its followers "were called Christians first in Antioch "? Is it the entrance upon a peculiar profession? Where was it, when it was not permitted to show itself in public? Does it consist in the reception of the elements, or in baptism? There have been periods, when these rites have been impracticable. Perhaps you imagine it to consist in the establishment of churches, of public worship, or of an order of ministers. Alas! it is too certain, that you may have been born and have lived in Christendom; you may have been baptized in infancy, in manhood, or in both; you may have communicated with the purest church on earth; you may have worn the threshold of the sanctuary with your footsteps; you may have borne the vessels of the altar, and entered the desk of instruction, without having entered the kingdom of Christ. Think you the possession of the privileges of the gospel is obedience to the gospel? or that the being decorated with the insignia of the empire will give you admittance to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? No. For, "when once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door," though many "standing without will begin to knock at the door and say, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us,' he