Year: 1864

The Church the Birthplace of Souls,
Sermon by ReU. DIR. TMttle, President


Of Wabash College, at the dedication


Of the New School Presbyterian


Church Of EcanscilIe, Reu. Nm. H


NC Carer, Pastor, corner of Second


and Walnut streets, February 18th,


1864.


TExr-"And of Zion it shall be said this and
that man was born in her; and the Highest him
self shall establish her.''-PsaIn 81 o


(Conczuded)


The least of Gods works excite our
wonder as much, perhaps, as the great
est We gaze in speechless admiration
upon the prairies, spread out like limit
less ocean, or on the mountains which
have been piled up in their sublime mai
esty, yet with scarcely less admiration do
we behold the little flower or the wing of
the smallest insect. The Telescope and
the Microscope, opening to our gaze the
magnitudes of the Universe, do but tes-
tify to the greatness of the Creator.


And yet, this is Almightiness in do
main where there is no obstacle. Here,
by the word of His power all things were
made. Not so in that work which God
had to do when he undertook to convert
a wicked soul into good one; a human
soul, now Satan's temple, into one fit
to be a temple of the Most High God.
Here, mere Omnipotence is out of its pro-
per sphere, since the work to be done is
to make an unwilling soul willing one;
a condemned soul a pardoned one; a
hateful soul a lovely one; an unclean
soul holy one; in word a wicked soul
a good one


Here the Almighty cannot say let it
be done, as when creating the heavens
and the earth. Justice, eternal and i'm
mutable forbids this 1t points to the
law which has been transgressed by the
sinner and to the declaration of Him
who cannot lie, " the soul that sinneth it
shall die ;"


Justice, with uplifted hand and with
brow made terrible by frowns deep as the
shadows of death, demands how even
God with all his omnipotence can justify
the sinner? We see at once that the
problem of creating a world is as moth
ing in its difficulties compared with that
of the new creating of wicked soul
But grant that justice can be satisfied by
some expedient which shall preserve
Gods Law and honor immaculate, how
is God to overcome the sinners hostility
to him? "The carnal mind is enmity to
God, it is not subject to his law, neither,
indeed, can be. God by an act of pow
er can annihilate the sinner, but can he
compel the sinner, full of enmity, to love
him And thus the entire work of the
souls new birth is environed with the
most formidable difficulties, in compari-
son with which all acts of mere omnipo-
tence sink into insigni6cance But, OH
how glorious it is when done, because
then a wicked soul becomes a good one,
a pernicious soul useful one, an ugly
soul beautiful one, defiled soul clean
one, wicked soul happy one, hate
full soul a lovely one, a dead soul one that
is alive, soul which is an heir of hell
an heir of heaven, in word a soul which
is doomed to an eternal damnation into
one that is beatifed with an eternal sal
vation.


Hence, reiterate the assertion that
the souls new birth is the greatest, as
we'll as most glorious of the works effect
ed among men, even by the Almighty
God.


Let me, in the Third place, remark on
the means by which God effects this great
est of all his works.


The answer to this question of means
also illustrates the grandeur Of the work
done-.he topic Just considered.


For the sake of distinctness, we will
consider the means by themselves.


They belong to two great classes, the
divine and the human. The former in
clude each person of the adorable Trim
ity. Let me state this matter in heavens
own rhetoric God the Father is to be
included as one of the forces or agents
producing that great work, the souls new
birth, for "God so loved the world" &C.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ is said to have begotten the Christ
ian to lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead


God the Sof is also an agent in the
same wonderful and difficult work. He
undertook in himself to solve the prob
lem of human redemption. He took
not on him the.nature of angels but of
men. He became in all respects a man,
and in that condition suffered what the
sinner deserved. God punised him as
sinner because he had taken the sinners
place. God loved and saved the sinner
as though be were righteous, because
whilst Christ had taken his place the
sinner had in this respect taken Christs
place. :


1t was double impulation of the sim
ner's guilt to Christ and Christs right
eousness to the sinner, double inter-
change of reward and penalty, the in
Fiction of the sinners penalty on Christ
and the bestowment of Christ reward
upon the sinner. So it is written by the
Holy Ghost, "Who hath made him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin, DC,


This is the Christ cruciied of whose
Office the Apostle makes so much. This
is the grand, and, so far as we are in
formed, the only means by which it is
possible for the sinful soul to experience
the new birth and the means illustrate
in the most startling manner both the
difficulty and the glory of the achieve
ment.


God the Spirit is also an agent il this
work. Our Lord represents this means
as essential, and the Apostles are man
imous in declaring that as many IS are
led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of
God, and because Of this men are warn
ed not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
The sinner is awakened, converted and
sanctifed by the Holy Spirit, the dead
sinner is made alive by the Holy Spirit,
the wicked soul is renewed into good
soul by the Holy Spirit


This presents the DiUine part of the
means employed in the souls new birth
Let us now look at the human.


1t is summed up in the preaching Of
Christ and him crucifed. This generic
statement is divisible into many incluG-
ed particulars, of which we have not
time to speak Hence when our Lord
had finished his word and would make it
effective in the salvation of sinners, he
said to his Apostles "Go ye into all the
world and predch the gospel to every