Thus if we be engaged in an honourable warfare, fighting the good fight of faith, laying hold on eternal life; though divided into different camps, having different facings, we are, if true Christians, all constituent members of the Church universal, ready to forgive the minor distinctive peculiarities in which we differ, seeking one grand result, the glory of our common Lord and the happiness of all mankind.

Opposed to us as constituting this army is an aggregate of all evil, corrupt, and perverse, and unholy elements. The army opposed to us is a composite of all that hate the truth; of all that reject, neglect, or corrupt the doctrines of the glorious gospel; its uniform is chameleon, adapted to the circumstances in which it works; its watchwords vary with the ages; its weapons always poisoned; its position always that of defence or attack; and its chief never resting, never growing old; yet doomed, on the authority of Him that cannot lie, to a catastrophe disastrous and complete. At one time he is a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour: this is Satan's least dangerous aspect; for he acts honestly, and tells us by his attitude that our destruction is his aim; we understand him, and are prepared to meet, resist, and in the strength of God's grace to overcome him. Sometimes he appears as a fierce and ruthless persecutor. This was his favourite policy, or rather his favourite strategy, in the days of Nero and Domitian; when the flames that consumed the Christians illuminated the midnight air;

when the Mamertine prison, or the catacombs, dark and cold, were the only homes they had on earth; and when to be proscribed, and thrown to the wild beasts, was the end of a life of faithfulness to God. But Satan discovered that persecution was the greatest blunder; for with all Satan's skill he does not dare to pretend to be infallible; for the flame that consumed the Christians shed its splendour on the iniquity of the persecutor, and wafted the believer's soul like a soft and elastic chariot to everlasting glory; and the prison even resounded with songs of praise; and on the prison walls have been left inscriptions that have only been deciphered in the 19th century and found to be Protestant truths; and if the Christians in Domitian's days had no sympathy on earth, they had a sympathizing Father in heaven; and one that sticketh closer than a brother, said, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Sometimes Satan assumes, as the leader of this host, the aspect of an angel of light. He comes and speaks words of love, of gentleness, of sympathy; and, under the garb of the highest Christian character, he seeks to achieve results ruinous to the cause and injurious to the glory of God. What is the whole Western apostasy in Italy? Just the embodiment of Satan as an angel of light; where, under the garb of Christianity, he deals it its most deadly stab; and out of professed zeal for the gospel, he extinguishes or depresses its most precious and distinctive truths. What is Pantheism—a favourite

type of scepticism in the present day? that system which in the pages of Emerson, and of Strauss, and, alas! I fear often if not always in the pages of Carlyle, makes man his own god, the world a magnificent saloon, the stars of the sky the gas-lamps to light it up, and the whole concave of the firmament a splendid mirror in which man may see reflected his magnificent self, the only god that he adores and worships continually. What is the scepticism of Voltaire, of Diderot, of Hume, of Paine, the vulgar scepticism of the last century; that scepticism which is just the reverse of Pantheism? This orb of ours is such a tiny little speck in the universe that it is impossible that God would be at the trouble to take such notice of it; and that the idea of a little speck like this, amid the countless orbs that shine upon the plains of infinitude, being a theatre in which God's Son should die, is so preposterous that it must be repudiated at the very beginning; forgetting that grand events occur in brief times, and magnificent dramas are enacted on small stages; and it may be, nay, we have no doubt it will be found to be, that on that little spot in the centre of Africa, Europe, and Asia, stained by a Saviour's blood, moistened by a Saviour's tears, the orbs of the universe in mighty and massive congregations will ever look, as the cherubim gazed upon the mercy-seat; and wonder that the world was not electrified when it heard that a God had died, that the guilty might be redeemed. It has been shown, I need not perhaps tell you, by

a most ingenious writer on astronomy, that should it be that the inhabitants of different orbs have sight which we have not; and if it be true that we shall be as angels, we shall see much farther and clearer than we now do. There are stars whose rays have just reached this world after travelling a million of years; evidence, therefore, irrefragably correct that these stars must have existed millions of years ago; -now, if it be true, this philosopher argues very beautifully, that the inhabitants of other orbs can see this earth, then, as rays of light travel at a certain rate, a ray from this earth may just have reached a distant orb, and its inhabitants may now be witnessing Martin Luther burning the Pope's Bull; another orb will see at this moment Hildebrand deluging broad Europe with blood; and the inhabitants of a more remote star will just at this moment see Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit rousing the populace to the Crusades; another will just see Constantine ascending the throne as a Christian; and the inhabitants of some other orb yet more remote will see Christ upon the Cross at this moment, the ray from that grand scene having just reached the margin of that distant star. And thus it may be that Calvary, with all its august and magnificent scenes, will in succession reach different orbs while the universe lasts; till literally the whole universe is filled with the glory of Him that redeemed it by His blood, and made Himself a sacrifice for its sin. Satan will show himself, as the great

leader of the hosts of the opposing forces, as at times a most wise, prudent, and discreet Christian. He will come to you in the shape of a friend and a brother, in the shape of a social meeting, or of a lecture in some public assembly; and he will talk to you of the great injury which these good Christians do to religion by their excitement and their enthusiasm; and he will say, What a pity they should not be more calm, more gentle in their mode of address; as if the transient events of the day may interest the feelings of the most apathetic, and the stupendous interests of eternity should not be allowed to excite one feeling of the human heart. He will come to you and say, It is quite intolerable to see the bigotry of these Christians; how can they be so bigoted? We are not ignorant of his devices. Bigotry is excessive attachment to a crotchet; but not excessive attachment to a vital truth. Such are some of the aspects under which Satan comes; these the weapons that he wields; these the specimens of the strategy and policy he pursues. We are so taught in God's word; and to know our peril is best to be prepared for it.

When we war against him, what are the weapons that we employ ? The weapons of our warfare, first, are not carnal, but mighty. Truth spurns the use of a carnal weapon. You cannot burn error out of a man's head, and you cannot bribe truth into a man's heart; and he who uses one single carnal weapon to support truth damages it, if not destroys its