noxious weeds from the neighborhood of useful plants cannot be more beneficial than the immediate excision from the communion of the Church of men of scandalous lives and conversation. But while the parable was not intended to prohibit such a salutary course of discipline as this, it is highly instructive in relation to the extent to which it may be carried. What intolerance and oppression have arisen from the abuse of ecclesiastical power! How many officious servants of the sanctuary, having fixed a standard of orthodoxy and practice according to their own peculiar views, have become the persecutors of others as sound as themselves in material points of doctrine, and as exemplary in the discharge of all the duties of life. Now the lesson taught by this parable is utterly hostile to such a course of conduct. It reminds us that in the Church of God on earth, "the evil are ever mingled with the good." Nominal Christians, hypocritical professors, specious pretenders to religion, are probably blended with the truly pious and sincere in every Christian society. This parable contains a manifest prophecy of the great Head of the Church, that such will continue to be the case to the end of time. The evil can never be entirely prevented. Wherever, therefore, fundamental error of doctrine is not propagated, or the cause of religion disgraced by a vicious course of life, any thing like severity of discipline is unbecoming and dangerous. A zeal well intended may produce the most mischievous effects.

Men may give but unsatisfactory evidences of piety, and exhibit but few of the graces of the Christian character, and on these points they may justly become the subjects of public or private admonition; and yet it may happen that in many instances of this sort, if we possessed a clearer insight into character, we should find much real goodness under an unpromising exterior. The same discernment might enable us to detect in others much secret vice, much unholy feeling, under apparently the most unblamable, nay the most attractive and admired course of external conduct. But it was never intended by Divine Providence to commit to fallible men a power which is from its very nature exclusively his own; and therefore their faculties, in the highest state of cultivation and improvement, are left incompetent to its safe and proper exercise. It is not permitted to root up the tares, lest, either through malice or mistake, the wheat be rooted up also.

A variety of causes may have restrained the Church from the exercise of severe discipline in cases where the interests of religion seemed to require it. In many of these cases, however, if the whole ground were surveyed, the complaint would vanish. But though it be just, imperfection in the administration of the system can be no objection to the system itself, which, even as established by the Savior, recognizes within the pale of the Christian communion the necessary toleration of some unworthy, nominal, hypocritical professors.

As this parable teaches a most instructive and imperative lesson of forbearance and moderation in the ministers of Christ, so it is calculated to correct a very improper course of sentiment in the private members of his Church. It is not unusual for Christians, actuated in some instances, it is hoped, by a holy zeal, but in others, it is feared, by a spirit of censoriousness, to sit in

judgment upon their brethren, and pronounce very unauthorized denunciations upon their characters and conduct. Such a practice has the unqualified disapprobation of our Savior in many parts of his invaluable instructions, and is obviously opposed to the principle of this parable, which apprises us of the great danger of assuming a province that is not ours, but belongs to Him who "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart." To persons of the dispositions mentioned, we would address expostulations such as the Apostle did to some of a like character in his day. "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own Master he standeth or falleth. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."

Equally opposed to the spirit of this parable, is that unhappy error of Christian professors, which leads them to separate from the communion of a religious society, because it tolerates, in their apprehension, some unworthy professors. Let such beware, lest the standard of duty which they have formed be not exactly that which the Holy Scriptures furnish. Let them reflect whether, in reference to the characters objected to, it be not at least possible that their judgment may be biassed or erroneous. And above all, let them be cautious, lest, by their unyielding and uncharitable conduct, they arraign the wisdom and goodness of God, who, no doubt for the wisest purposes, has apprised us, in the text, that the wheat and the tares, the righteous and the wicked, are to grow together, until, in the great harvest of the judg ment day, He makes the awful separation.

Our Savior closed his explanation of this parable, by emphatically exclaiming, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." In the brief improvement with which we propose to conclude, let us also call on several descriptions of persons to hear the profitable instruction it affords.

1. Let vain speculators and philosophers hear. After all their attainments in human knowledge, how limited is their comprehension of the ways of God; how far beyond their reach the immense and complicated system by which his universe is governed. Let them not be hasty in condemning the arrangements of divine Providence, with the vast machinery and ultimate objects of which they are so little acquainted. Let them avoid presumptuous and rash speculations. Instead of daring to censure, let them silently acquiesce in events, which, though incomprehensible to them, they may be assured have originated in wisdom, are conducted in the most fit and proper manner, and will terminate in the happiest results.

In the final close of this terrestrial scene, and the full development of the ways of Providence, how meau and contemptible will all the vain objections. of men appear! But until that period, "the Most High worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, and giveth not account of any of his matters."

2. Let self-deceivers hear. Let them not imagine that their being ranked in outward profession with "the children of the kingdom," constitutes them

of the happy number. Let them examine themselves as to the grounds of their religion. "Try your ownselves, prove your own selves, whether ye be in the faith." They are perhaps trusting, as evidence of their religion, to transient feelings, or a punctilious attention to outward rites. Let them not build the superstructure of their hopes on such sandy foundations as these. Instead of fitful, inflamed affections, let them cultivate settled habits of piety. When availing themselves of the useful adjuncts of piety, religious rituals, let them recollect that there is "a form of godliness without the power," and that they may possess "a name to live, whilst they are dead." In that day when He "whose fan is in his hand shall thoroughly purge his floor, he will gather his wheat only into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." God "requires truth in the inward parts." Although hypocrites may now mingle in communion with the truly pious and sincere, "the Lord knoweth their hearts;" and what will be "their hope when God taketh away their souls?"

3. Let the righteous hear. Let them not be offended, nor fret themselves, at the unavoidable mixture of good and bad in the church of Christ. It is a departure from the character that ought to distinguish his disciples, to indulge repining murmurs at what he has predicted as an accompaniment of his church to the end of the world; and it is a violation of his precepts, invidiously to judge the character of their brethren. James and John were once so inconsiderately jealous as to ask permission to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans, who refused to receive their Master. But "he rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Let us "judge nothing before the time." Without presumptuously deciding upon the claims of others, let us strive "to approve ourselves to God." And even where the flagrancy of vice compels us to censure, let us not transform the just condemnation of sin into a personal hatred of the sinner. Whilst God withholds his judgments, forbearance on our part is an obvious duty. The solemn day of separation is not far distant. Until it arrives, let admonition and kind persuasion supply the place of vengeance. In the natural world there can be no transmutation of tares into wheat; but in the kingdom of grace a change impossible in nature is readily effected. Many of those who are already gathered into the granary of heaven; many of those who are now ripening for that glorious harvest that awaits them, were once noxious, unproductive tares or pestilential weeds. Christian charity, which "hopeth all things," should encourage the belief, that many nominal professors, and profligate offenders, whose hypocrisy or wickedness we now lament, may, by that "God who is rich in mercy," yet be "quickened in Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Finally-let all who are now present, hear.

The great harvest announced in this parable involves the gathering in, or the eternal rejection, of the whole human race. The division will be but into two classes. Whether these be designated by the terms, wheat and chaff, wheat and tares, sheep and goats, wise and foolish virgins, persons clothed with, or destitute of, the wedding garment, there are but two classes. In

that awful "day which shall burn as an oven," his appointed ministers, the "holy angels," will discern with unerring sagacity between them. "The righteous will then shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, whilst they that have done iniquity shall be cast into a furnace of fire, where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." May God, of his infinite mercy, grant us a portion with the righteous in that day, for Christ's sake. AMEN.

MANNER OF READING.

"The author is impressed with the fact, that, in the manner of reading, and especially of reading Sermons, there is generally exhibited a most shameful and criminal deficiency. If he might be allowed a suggestion on this point, he would say with deference, let the parent, or some one selected by him, read aloud for the benefit of the family, after preparing himself to read with due emphasis and feeling. And as a general rule, read aloud, even when aloneremembering that impressions made at once on the ear and eye, reach the heart with double force. Let this course be prayerfully adopted, and well written sermons and essays, and the precious Bible itself, would not so often be regarded as dull compositions; but their perusal would be accompanied with power from on high."-Preface to Clark's Works.

THE FINAL SETTLEMENT.

"How soon, my brethren, will the amazing realities of Judgment and Eternity break upon our unearthly vision, and fill us either with ecstasy or despair! I cast my thoughts forward but a little, and behold, the dead are rising, the elements melting, saints rejoicing, devils trembling. The Judge appears upon his great white throne-In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we are before the judgment seat, with our respective flocks. The faithful and the unfaithful shepherds of every age are there. The trial proceeds, the books are closed, the final sentence is pronounced. opened, and the pit yawns-the eternal song and the eternal wail are both begun. O may we then rise, with a great multitude saved through our unworthy instrumentality, to shine with them, as the brightness of the firma ment-as the stars forever and ever."-President Humphrey.

The heavens are

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE.

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FROM THE REV. ASAHEL NETTLETON.

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