such warm and anxious hearts for the occasional and too seldom visits of the Missionary of Truth. Who, that Saco and Houlton would spiritually, and in their representatives, meet and give each other Christian greeting on this day, in this beautiful young city, in the presence of “so great a cloud of witnesses," gathered from all directions? Not the most hopeful of all that early time forsaw all this. The fathers were men of faith, but the progress of the gospel they loved and honored, has been more rapid than they anticipated. This work is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

Let us take heart from this. And let us consider, too, for our encouragement, what aid we shall hereafter receive from our denominational Schools, our College, and our Theological Seminary. These institutions will be highly useful in fitting our young men for the ministry, and in putting a becoming and attractive polish upon our general mind. We do not regret that our denomination is composed so largely of the sturdier and tougher materials of humanity. Let these materials be shaped and burnished by the hand of learning, and then strength and beauty will be united in our sanctuaries, and utility and taste will go hand in hand within our borders. We want no worldly lore merely for heartless, scholastic display; we want no theological training, if, in consequence of it, we must lose our manliness, and be effeminate. We ask for the assistance of schools, of such schools as our necessity demands, because they will improve us, and make us more efficient as the representatives of a pure and

noble religion. Such schools let us sustain and honor. And, furthermore, whatever stands by us, to contribute something for our advantage, to augment our force, or to add to the efficaciousness of our labors, letus accept thankfully, and prove in all our efforts to promote the interests of holiness and truth; that we are worthy of its favor.

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Finally, let us work for our cause in the spirit of Christ, in the faith that it is the Almighty's cause, and that, under his sanction and direction, it must have free course and be glorified. And, in the deepness of our trust, and in the strength, serenity and cheerfulness of our hope, let this be the perpetual song of our heart:

"God is a worker. He has thickly strewn
Infinity with grandeur. God is love;
He yet shall wipe away creation's tears,
And all the worlds shall summer in his smile."

DISCOURSE XXVI.

THE WHEAT AND THE CHAFF.

LUKE III. 17.

WHOSE FAN IS IN HIS HAND, AND HE WILL THOROUGHLY PURGE HIS FLOOR, AND HE WILL GATHER HIS WHEAT INTO HIS GARNER; BUT THE CHAFF HE WILL BURN WITH UNQUENCHABLE FIRE.

Our view of any passage of the Bible which tells us of the office and mission of the Saviour, is very sure to be in harmony with our idea of the Saviour's character and spirit. Its meaning is colored by the light in which we behold the great Sun of Righteousness. The meaning of the text for example, is thought to be one thing by one class of men, and something very different by another class. This disagreement is the effect of two classes who occupy different stand-points, or see the disc of the Sun in the moral sky above them with different eyes. They who see the Saviour as the great Sun of truth and love, of justice and mercy, look at the text and say, that it implies that his power is disciplinary, reformatory, purifying, and will destroy sin, and save the sinner. Others, who see him as cold and partial, cruel or vindictive, say that it implies that he will separate and fix in opposite and

very different positions the righteous and the wickedand will make the broad distinction between them eternal.

The Saviour stands before our eyes as the Son of the Universal Father, as the Missionary and Servant of Love. His "fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and he will gather the wheat into his garner; but he will burn the chaff in unquenchable fire." That is to say, he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver and gold, separating the real metals from the dross, or selecting the silver and the gold for noble purposes of utility and taste, and consuming the dross as worthless and offensive.

The true view of the Son of God is not that he is building a wall of partition between the righteous and the wicked to stand forever, but that he is doing a spiritual work in the hearts of all, that he looks upon all as in unbelief, as in sin, that he may be compassionate and merciful to all. The entire area of his kingdom, the whole space over which his reign extends, is his threshing-floor. His fan is in his hand, the Father has given him the power, and he will thoroughly purge his floor; and he will separate the wheat from the chaff, he will gather the wheat into his garner; but he will burn the chaff in unquenchable fire;-in other words, he will deliver the souls of men from the power of sin, yet he will save them as by fire, and put an end to sin. He will lead all men, (for all have sinned,) through a course of discipline and instruction, and finally bring them to purity and peace. He will try all men as by fire, and thus sepa

rate, within them all, the wheat from the chaff, keeping the former but consuming the latter.

If there be any perfect men, any holy souls, any who are whole, it is no concern of theirs what he may do. His mission does not take them in; the whole need not a Physician, but they that are sick. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to seek and to save the lost. If none are good, if none are perfect, if all have gone astray, his aim is to visit all with his saving help. And if his power is eternal, it is an unquenchable fire which will burn the chaff, when the wheat of every soul shall have been gathered into the garner of the Lord; which will consume the dross, while it will make more and more clear and beautiful the silver and the gold of every man's heart.

The fact that this sacred fire, this fire of justice and mercy, so purifying to the soul of man, so destructive to his sin, is unquenchable, is not an appalling, alarming, or fearful thing to consider. We should rejoice because of it. Though we may be called to pass through the severest discipline, we shall never have cause to complain of the ordeal. God's unquenchable fire is the fire of infinite, unchangable Love, and all men should joyfully hail and honor him who comes from the courts of blessedness to lead them through the trial of this fire, and by so doing bring them to holiness.

The idea of the Saviour in the New Testament, is not that he is an agent of an arbitray Sovereign, commissioned to carry out an unmerciful plan, to divide