mode of doing good to others, and of securing no small enjoyment to yourselves. Of the enjoyment to yourselves I shall say nothing. Look at the good to others which you may accomplish. The cause of temperance has come to be a great cause; it has come to possess attributes of grandeur and sublimity which very few even of its warmest friends had at first anticipated. Its growth has been rapid, and the effects it is destined to accomplish by-and-by, are as yet not fully in view of any of its most ardent supporters. Does any one hesitate on this point? It was but as yesterday when this cause commenced its being. You all recollect well when no such thing as a temperance society was known or thought of. Now thousands upon thousands of our countrymen are engaged in this good work; and this is not all; the fame of our cause has gone out beyond the limits of our own country, and England, and Scotland, and Wales, and Ireland, and France, and countries farther north, and the far distant isles of the ocean are emulating our example, and forming kindred societies, on the same principle of total abstinence. Not many years will have made their circuit before we shall hear of kindred societies in every country in Europe, and on the banks of the Ganges, under the pagodas of India, and the teeming millions of China, on the coast of Africa, and even among the red men of the western wilderness and prairies towards the setting sun. I repeat it, the cause of temperance has become a great cause; it has put on already an aspect of grandeur and importance which few are aware of. By-and-by its labors of love to mankind will be appreciated. By-and-by it will be numbered among the greatest and best instruments of good to mankind which this wonderful age has devised and put in operation. Now here is an opening for doing good; here is a mode of being useful and benefiting our fellowmen, which all may be called upon to embrace. I do, then, from the profoundest convictions that our cause is a good one, and one of commanding interest, most affectionately and respectfully invite you all to co-operate with the friends of this cause in its advancement. I invite you to such co-operation in view of its tendency to promote your own happiness in your hours of retirement and self-inspection. I invite you in view of the good that you may thus do to others. And above all, I invite your co-operations in view of the fact which has been the basis of these re. marks, that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

TO SUBSCRIBERS.

The 14th volume of the NATIONAL PREACHER commences with the January number.

While several periodicals, similar in design but denominational in character, have been commenced during the existence of the National Preacher, not a single one, it is believed, is published at the present time. This being national and catholic, still continues its hold upon the public estimation, and is receiving, as it has done, the patronage of individuals belonging to several of the most respectable denominations of christians in the Union. Ministers of all evangelical denominations have contributed to its pages, and their co-operation is still invited.

The work in future, in character, spirit, and execution, will be as in previous years; with such improvements, however, as the present Editor may, by an increase of patronage, find himself able to introduce.

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DEATH BY SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS.

"But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost."

2 CORINTHIANS, 4: 3.

We can scarcely conceive of a more affecting commission or a more terrible doom than that which Isaiah was commanded to bear against rebellious Israel, when God was about to give them up to the blindness of their minds and the hardness of their hearts. "Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert and be healed." With what feelings must the prophet have borne such a commission, which seemed to leave no avenue for mercy, which by its very terms cut off all hope from his people. They were to be fatally enshrouded in that darkness they had so long courted, and were given over to the delusions they had so fearfully indulged: they were to behold the scheme of salvation unfolded before them without apprehending its import: to see all their prophecies advance to fulfilment, their law completed in the great victim to which it pointed without recognizing the Messias: they were to witness his miracles without yielding to the evidence, to listen to his doctrines without acknowledging the voice of God, to have the way of life set before them and refuse to walk therein : they were to hear the oracle of heaven pronounce their national destruction without trembling; in utter insensibility to see the sun of salvation decline and depart, to leave them in a night of hopeless desertion. And how exactly does their history coincide with these prophetic denunciations: not a link is wanting to complete the evidence of their guilt, and each event of Providence yields a tremendous attestation to the truth and justice of God. We witness their persevering rejection of the Messias, and the imprecated curse still cleaves to the nation. We behold them insensible to the warning, and they become a scattered and peeled people. "Blindness

hath happened unto Israel unto this day:" to this day they remain a living and sad memorial of the guilt and danger of rejecting the truth, and of the righteousness of God, who taketh vengeance.

No other feelings than those of astonishment and sorrow can find a place in our minds, as we contemplate this mournful example. It seems strange, wonderful, that they should thus persist in their infatuation, amidst warnings and reproofs; and the holiness and justice of God is confessed by every tongue. And yet, have we ever reflected, that under the government of the same God the same principles must still exist: that with clearer light and more impressive sanctions, the guilt and danger of rejecting the claims of the Gospel cannot be less? Have we ever thought of the solemn inference, "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ?"

Let me ask your attention to the scope and meaning of this declaration and your personal concern with it. For the sake of connected illustration, we shall consider what is implied in the subject here spoken of, "our Gospel." Call your thoughts to the truth that it may be hidden from some; and notice the consequences to such; "they are lost." These topics should awaken a trembling solicitude in every bosom, not to be dispelled until the great question of our personal interest in the Gospel salvation is happily decided. Let us,

I. Inquire what is comprehended in the subject here spoken of, "OUR GOSPEL." The term, as you are well aware, signifies "glad tidings," and in its technical use the good news of salvation to a perishing world; the revelation of free pardon and the promise of eternal life to sons and daughters of apostacy and guilt. It finds its necessity in the fact of human depravity, and comprehends all those doctrines of grace and truth which flow from God, and through Jesus Christ result in the complete salvation of sinners. "Herein God may be just, and the justifier of him who believeth." "He hath made peace through the blood of the cross; by him to reconcile all things to himself, whether they be things in heaven or things on the earth." Most emphatically, therefore, may it be styled "glad tidings of great joy to all people." The very announcement should fill the soul with raptures of love, and prompt on earth the glad response to the exulting praise of angels, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men." From the tens of thousands who are most interested in this divine communication, from the myriads who can be saved only by its virtue, from the captives of sin and sorrow to whom it comes as a proclamation of liberty and joy, does it demand and deserve a ready acceptance, as a message well authenticated and worthy of the benevolence of God.

But without expatiating upon its general character, let us notice more particularly some of its leading features. Recognizing, then, the total alienation of the human family from its Sovereign, which implies not merely a liability to sin and disinclination to holiness, but actual transgression and virulent enmity of heart against God; from this point it proceeds to teach the necessity and the fact of propitiation for iniquity, and an available righteousness through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. Let it be remembered that