'They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my SERMON I. THE NECESSITY OF THE SPIRIT TO GIVE EFFECT TO THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. 46 1 CORINTHIANS, ii. 4, 5. And my speech, and my preaching, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." PAUL, in his second epistle to the Corinthians, has expressed himself to the same effect as in the text, in the following words: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit." In both these passages, the Apostle points to a speciality in the work of a Christian teacher, -a something essential to its success, and which is not essential to the proficiency of scholars in the ordinary branches of education,an influence that is beyond the reach of human power and human wisdom; and to obtain which, immediate recourse must be had, in the way of prayer and dependence, to the power of God. Without attempting a full exposition of these different verses, we shall, first, endeavour to direct your attention to that part of the work of a Christian teacher, which it has in common with any other kind of education; and, secondly, offer a few remarks on the speciality that is adverted to in the text. I. And here it must be admitted, that, even in the ordinary branches of human learning, the success of the teacher, on the one hand, and the proficiency of the scholars on the other, are still dependent on the will of God. It is true, that, in this case, we are not so ready to feel our dependence. God is apt to be overlooked in all those cases where he acts with uniformity. Wherever we see, what we call, the operation of a law of nature, we are apt to shut our eye against the operation of his hand, and faith in the constancy of this law, is sure to beget, in the mind, a sentiment of independence on the power and will of the Deity. Now, in the matters of human education, God acts with uniformity. Let there be zeal and ability on the part of the teacher, and an ordinary degree of aptitude on the part of the taught,— and the result of their vigorous and well sustained co-operation may in general be counted upon. Let the parent, who witnesses his son's capacity, and his generous ambition for improvement, send him to a well-qualified in structor, and he will be filled with the hopeful sentiment of his future eminence, without any reference to God whatever,-without so much as ever thinking of his purpose or of his agency in the matter, or its once occurring to him to make the proficiency of his son the subject of prayer. This is the way in which nature, by the constancy of her operations, is made to usurp the place of God: and it goes far to spread, and to establish the delusion, when we attend to the obvious fact, that a man of the most splendid genius may be destitute of piety; that he may fill the office of an instructor with the greatest talent and success, and yet be without reverence for God, and practically disown him; and that thousands of our youth may issue every year warm from the schools of Philosophy, stored with all her lessons, and adorned with all her accomplishments, and yet be utter strangers to the power of godliness, and be filled with an utter distaste and antipathy for its name.. All this helps on the practical conviction, that common education is a business, with which prayer and the exercise of dependence on God, have no concern. It is true that a Christian parent will see through the vanity of this delusion. Instructed to make his requests known unto God in all things, he will not depose him from the supremacy of his power and of his government over this one thing, he will commit to God the progress of his son in every one branch of education he may put him to,-and, knowing that the talent of every teacher, and the continuance of his zeal, and his powers of communication, and his faculty of interesting the attention of his pupils,-that all these are the gifts of God, and may be withdrawn by him at pleasure,—he will not suffer the regular march and movement of what is visible or created to cast him out of his dependence on the Creator. He will see that every one element which enters into the business of education, and conspires to the result of an accomplished and a well-informed scholar is in the hand of the Deity, and he will pray for the continuation of these elements, and while science is raising her wondrous monuments, and drawing the admiration of the world after her, it remains to be seen, on the day of the revelation of hidden things, whether the prayers of the humble and derided Christian, for a blessing on those to whom he has confided the object of his tenderness, have not sustained the vigour and the brilliancy of those very talents on which the world is lavishing the idolatry of her praise. Let us now conceive the very ablest of these teachers, to bring all his powers and all his accomplishments, to bear on the subject of Christianity. Has he skill in the languages? The very same process by which he gets at the meaning any ancient author, carries him to a fair of |