and nobles in fetters of iron; the wheels of the Redeemer's chariot move not back, but shall roll on until "the Desire" shall become the Delight of all nations, and shall reign over them in righteousness. All the resources of the universe are in the hands of the ascended Jesus. To him the Father hath said, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever;" and the hour hastens on, when the whole earth shall become a temple, and that temple be filled with the glory of the Lord, and echo with the hallelujahs of

"An assembly such as earth

Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see."

Welcome the glorious consummation! O months, and seasons, and years, speed your tardy flight, and usher in the blissful period; that day when, from every hill and valley, shall ascend clouds of incense, to return in sparkling showers of mercy; when, from every human heart, shall swell the angelic hymn, Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men; when the pealing chorus of a renovated world shall answer back the thundering acclamations of the skies, and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them shall say, Alleluiah! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; Worthy is the Lamb that was slain; Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Amen!

DISCOURSE XXVII,

THOMAS H. SKINNER, D.D.

DR. SKINNER was born March 7th, 1791, in Perquimous county, North Carolina, north shore of Albemarle Sound, near Harvey's Point. His father was a planter, a man of high position, and greatly beloved in the Baptist church, of which he was a member till his death, in 1829. At the age of twenty years he was converted and united with the Presbyterian church in Princeton, New Jersey. The special means blessed to this end were sermons preached by the Rev. B. H. Rice, D.D., and a severe domestic affliction. His studies were pursued at Nassau Hall, where he graduated in 1809.

Dr. Skinner was ordained in 1813 and took the charge of the Second Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, as colleague of the Rev. Dr. Janeway, successor to Rev. Dr. Green. His other pastoral charges have been the Fifth Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, assumed in December, 1816, and resigned in 1832; and the Mercer-street Presbyterian church, assumed in 1835 and resigned in 1848, at which time he was elected Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Pastoral Theology, and Church Government, in the Union Theological Seminary, New York; a position which he still holds. He was Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Andover Theological Seminary from 1832 to 1835. He has a son in the ministry, Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, jr., now of Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Many years ago he published two volumes, called "Religion of the Bible," and "Preaching and Hearing," and, more recently, translations of Vinet's Pastoral Theology, and Vinet's Homiletics.

In personal appearance, Dr. Skinner is about medium height, rather tall, slim and spare; hair light and thin, mingled with gray; forehead broad and deep, and a general expression of intellectual capacity and studious habits. As professor in the seminary in New York, he is much respected, and highly acceptable and useful.

As a preacher, Dr. Skinner's marked characteristics are, ardent love for the truth, clearness and richness of thought, deep evangelical sentiment, and precision, directness, and strength of expression. Some of his views on preaching, of which he is himself a fine illustration, are presented in the preface of his "Religion of the Bible," where he says: "It is not when its theme is controversy, but certain and fundamental truth, that religious discourse should be most distinguished by discrimination, exactness of statement, clearness, order, and strength of reasoning, as well as by pungency and earnestness. Nor do I wish to be thought of the opinion, that all discussion in points of dispute among Christians, is unlawful, or unnecessary. The ordinary teaching of the ministry, should, I am persuaded, have little to do with disputes. IF ANY MAN SPEAK, LET HIM SPEAK AS THE ORACLES OF GOD. It is a 'point of great inconvenience and peril to entitle the people to hear controversies, and all

kinds of doctrine. They say no part of the counsel of God is to be suppressed: so is the difference which the apostle maketh between milk and strong meat is confounded and his precept, that the weak be not admitted unto questions and controversies, taketh no place.'* If, nevertheless, Christians will discuss their differences with becoming moderation, and earnest endeavors be still used to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace, there doubtless are times and places in which they may do so, without sin, and, perhaps, to edification. Where, however, the business directly in hand is that of saving men, earnestness and skill in conducting that great work, will, as far as possible, preclude the intrusion of controverted points."

The subjoined discourse, printed by Dr. Skinner's permission, has had a somewhat wide, and most merited, reputation. It was printed many years ago, and if we mistake not, the substance of it was incorporated into a Review article. We lately heard one of the first preachers in the country remark, that this sermon was read by him a great number of years since, and had deeply influenced his ministerial and Christian career. The recollection of it, he said, was yet fragrant in his memory.

SPIRITUAL JOY AS AN ELEMENT OF STRENGTH.

"The joy of the Lord is your strength."-NEHEMIAH, viii. 10.

EXPOUNDING the rule of duty to those who have violated it, tends in the first instance, if they have ingenuous minds, to exercise them with sorrow, but that sorrow ends in joy. The children of the captivity, who by warrant from the King of Persia, returned to the land of their fathers, had for a long time been destitute of spiritual instruction, and almost as a matter of course, had fallen into spiritual insensibility and unconcern. But they were somehow led to gather themselves together as one man, to hear the word of God; and Ezra the Scribe, with certain Levites, his assistants, read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused the people to understand the reading. The effect was —an illustrious instance of the heart-melting power of divine truth-a deep sense of sin in the entire assembly. All the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. An unusual spectacle in this hard-hearted world! An immense concourse of men all in tears before God on account of their sins! Well might the ministers of religion hasten to fulfill the commission, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. It is needful that sinful men should sorrow, but there is nothing desirable in sorrow on its own account, and God works it in his chosen, only that by means of it, he may open a fit channel into their breasts for the consolations of his Spirit to flow in. Hence Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, and Ezra the Priest, the Scribe, and the teaching Levites, dismissed that great assembly of mourners with these gracious words: This day is

*Lord Bacon.

holy to the Lord your God: mourn not, nor weep; go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto our Lord; neither be ye

sorry, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH.

As is the sorrow of a penitent heart, such is the nature of the joy to which it leads. Both are the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There are joys of a different kind. There is a natural joy which one feels after escaping out of great danger, or being unexpectedly blessed with worldly good. There is also a religious joy which springs from mistaken impressions. These are not the joy of the Lord; they are but for a moment; they pass away, and leave the heart void, desolate, and despairing. The joy of the Lord, the same which fills the eternal mind, is the only joy that meets the desires and exigences of any rational being. To all rational minds, of God, angels and men, there is but one true happiness. Angels are not happy, and men are not happy, unless they share the happiness of him who is over all, blessed forever. With him is the fountain of life-not a rill, not a drop of bliss in the universe, which that fountain does not yield. They who go elsewhere for happiness, wander into boundless deserts, where all is drought, and burning winds and vast desolation. What is the exhilaration of the animal spirits, what were intellectual delights, what the pleasures of sin, the utmost indulgences of the lusts of flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, to that immortal spirit in man which bears the image, and pants for the blessedness of God? How can a man be called happy, when almost every thing belonging to him that raises him above the brute, is either wholly portionless, or is tantalized with what is no more suited to its nature, than shadows or dreams to sustain the bodily life?

And now what is the joy of the Lord? It is joy arising from the same causes, terminating on the same objects, and yielding the same results as that which the infinite Being himself possesses, without measure. Its spring is holiness; its objects are the divine perfections and works; its results are the various forms of true beneficence and kindness. It is the joy of holy love; of complacency in God and goodness, and of benevolence to his creatures. It is delight, sensible and satisfying delight, such as forms the boundless and fathomless ocean of heavenly beatitude. As existing in sinners of mankind, its precursor ordinarily, as has been intimated, is holy sorrow; and its medium is a living union with Christ, by faith. It is, as shared by them, the purchase of the Saviour's precious blood, and the fruit of the renewing influence of the Spirit of God. Our object, however, at present, is not so much to describe this feeling, as to show the power of it, as a practical principle. The joy of the Lord is OUR STRENGTH. It is the spring of our greatest efficiency for good; the great mover and inciter of the soul to holy action and achievement; the sustainer also of our energies in accomplishing our benevolent undertakings; what, above all things, keeps the mind going cheerfully

We

forward in its spiritual efforts and adventures, and bears on without fainting or weariness to a successful issue of its struggles and conflicts. propose to offer a few remarks in illustration of this sentiment.

Joy is the achiever of almost every good or noble thing which is done under the sun. There is nothing like it to make the spirit of man erect, resolute, persevering, patient, and indefatigable. Almost universally, where there is great labor, at least available labor, there is also great mental delight. The exceptions do but confirm the general principle. Men may be impelled to labor by ambition, by necessity, by fear, by avarice; but unless their labor becomes itself delight, what great thing, or noble thing, or what thing worthy of their pains, do they ordinarily accomplish? Consult the sons of the muses, the toilers at deep investigation and exact analysis, the makers of those books-the best products of human labor—that come forth into the community like living luminaries to pour the light and heat of mind through ages to come; consult all successful artists, jurists, statesmen, merchants, and agriculturists; and you will find, that these several classes of laborers are held to their respective sorts of work mainly by the cord of sensible delight or pleasurable interest in the object of attention. Who would anticipate brilliant success from any course of exertion in which the man went forward under some other impulse than that of lively interest in his work? Where there is no delight, the heart will not be found; and what can a man do in one sphere, when his heart is in another? But we need not enlarge on this point. All men see it, feel it, perfectly understand it. It is responded to at once from the breast of every one.

Now, our remark is this, that the principle is as true in its application to man's moral agency, as to his physical and intellectual. It is joy, for the most part, that makes men industrious and indefatigable in the fulfillment of moral claims and undertakings. This is the great principle of Christian attainment; of holy zeal and enterprise in the people of God. Why should it not be so? Would it not be surprising and unaccountable to find it otherwise? Should we not ask with wonder, how is it that a principle which holds good in every other department of rational agency, should fail in this department? Are the laws of nature violated in the spiritual kingdom? No; reason requires us to believe that this is the very sphere in which, above all others, the efficiency of this influence is discovered. The influence itself exists here in a far nobler kind, than anywhere else. The joy of the Lord is as far above all other kinds of joy, as holiness is better than other kinds of excellence. The just conclusion is, that the effects of this joy are proportionately superior; the conclusion of common sense, confirmed by the universal testimony of Scripture and experience. It may, however, be useful, to enter somewhat particularly into an examination of the tendencies of this feeling; to inquire, in several instances, int: the ways in which its efficacy is exerted and discovered.