fire unquenchable, to burn up the chaff, stubble and dross, of an unbelieving community. A hammer it is, to break down rocky hearts into repentance, contrition, regeneration, - as it is doing to multitudes around us at the present time. Otherwise, it becomes a hammer in the hand of Providence, to break down the estate, character, family, health, life; and, at length, hammers the body into the grave, and the soul into perdition!

Luther might well compare the word of the Lord rejected to a sword, a war, a destruction! — falling upon the children of Ephraim like a lion in the forest. "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the key that opens Paradise to every one who rightly uses it. But it becomes the key eventually to open the prison-doors of hell to every one who persists in abusing it! Ay, and as one said, it rolls the heaviest stone upon the mouth of the pit that is bottomless !

28

CHAPTER XXIII.

GOD'S ADVERSARIES ADDRESSED.

THE reader will find some strong and spicy words in the following chapter. They were directed against those who fumed and raged against the work of God in Huddersfield, but are applicable to the same class of sinners in every place.

What God said to the serpent, Gen. 3: 15, "And I wil. put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," is receiving some illustrations here; for the enmity of the serpent's seed is unmistakable!

The old chemists, were they alive now, would be "taker all aback." They squandered wealth, talents, character and life itself, in search of the philosopher's stone, or the secret tincture that would turn base metal into gold. Matters are reversed now-a-days; - gold must be turned into base metal,— the servants of Christ into base hypocrites! How many around us are studying that infernal chemistry,both in human character and in divine doctrine! The pure gold of the sanctuary under course of transmutation into brass, iron, clay, or something worse; the time of counting zealous Christians the off-scouring of all things has not yet passed away. 1 Cor. 4: 13. However, the thing is not done yet. They will find as hard a job of it as the old

chemists. Alas for them! they are staking their all upon desperate ventures!

Some, despairing of success, have fallen to the work of clipping the names and characters of God's people. Failing in transmutation, they would lessen their weight,rather unprofitable business, in the long run. Men have been severely punished for clipping the coin of the realm. Our God may yet punish some of you for clipping the current names of his servants. Your aim is plain, to make them weigh lighter in public estimation. With some you may possibly succeed, even to their undoing. But you cannot, without our own fault, lessen us in Christ's balances. Clip on, then; we shall try, through the merits of Him, to make full weight with our Master now, and in that day!

Your Master is ingenious. He steers you clear of legal troubles, by concealing the press from whence your missiles come. That suits his purpose now. It will not be so always. Your dupes may even sell your printed trash without the printer's name; nay, sell a straw, and take a penny, and give these away! The devil will leave some of you in the lurch, by and by. not fabulous! - a jail is a matter-of-fact place, and so is a sick-bed, and a death-bed, and other hells on this side hell.

He has his eye on a limbo

God will require it. Dismember our influence, and prevent us from doing good, and our God may, for the salvation of others, break all your bones, or your high spirits, or dismember your soul and body, bone from bone in the grave, -SOUL from peace, from rest, from heaven,- in hell!

Proceed, if you dare! God will see to it, and judge between us. If so, can it be well with you? The Emperor of China said to Alexander the Great, "The heavens aid you, and I war not with the heavens." He averred that he learned that fact by consulting the stars.

We send you not

to the stars, but to that one STAR,—
on time," the Holy Bible!
that the heavens aid us.

"the only star that rose There you will find evidence Therefore, if you war with us,

you war with the Bible; and, if you war with that, you war with Heaven, and evil will surely betide you.

Look around you, also! Converts to Jesus Christ are increasing as the stars of heaven. Behold these hundreds and hundreds of your hitherto wicked fellow-townsmen, new creatures in Christ Jesus. Who made them such? The Holy Ghost, against whom a certain sin is unpardonable. Let the Chinese consult the stars in favor of an Alexander. In the name of God, consult these new stars which now appear in beautiful order in the firmament of the church, shining resplendently as ever the stars did over China. What is their voice?

"In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing, as they shine,

The Hand that made us is divine!"

can

In the mean time, we know how to follow Christ to Calvary, as well as to Olivet. The Methodists of Hbear clipping, and be full weight still. They are read and known of the public, as well as of the Lord. They are not afraid of a sharp winter storm in their face, if need be ; their faith will be all the better for it. Hypocrites shrink from such weather, but not the true knights of Zion's banner, whose motto is, "All things work together for good to them who love God." True, we have some green timber that may possibly shrink in the seasoning; nor are the Demases yet totally extinct in Zion; neither are the Moseses, nor Calebs,- thank our God! - willing, if called to it, to suffer affliction with the people of God,-feeling well

able, by strength divine, to go forward over every Jordanlike difficulty and opposing foes, and possess the land.

That poor woman at the river, the other day, found her clothes would not bear rubbing, they were so rotten. But a servant, the other morning, found the more she rubbed the door-plate, the brighter it grew, and the more brilliantly did the owner's name shine upon it.

Well, there is just this difference between one class of religious folks and another. The rubbings of persecution try the fabric of Christians.

Hearken, all of you! The name of Jesus is our tower and talisman. ETERNITY is our watchword, the end of our toil, the reimburser of our losses, the amender of our wrongs inflicted by men or devils. We can say, with a preacher over in Germany, yonder,- blessings on him! we are of the order of the free knights of Zion's banner, with the inscription on our shields, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory." Our watchword, "All things are ours;" and on our joyful lips and in our breasts the royal consciousness, "If we live, we live unto the Lord; and if we die, we die unto the Lord; so whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." Therefore we are to be tranquil and joyful. That which is opposed to and leagued against us he will destroy for us. All that we have to do is to wave our colors and cry "VICTORY." We occupy the position appointed for us. Would anything terrify us, we touch Him who sits by our side; we whisper in his ear, "Lord, take thy sword," then are we confident, and wait the deeds of his arm.

The field is

unfailingly ours, with such a faith. We wait on the Lord, then, and the promise is we shall "never be put to confusion." Threatening clouds may gather around us; but our harps are attuned to as many thanksgiving psalms as there