DISCOURSE SEVENTY-FIRST. JOHN LELAND. THIS celebrated preacher was born in Grafton, Massachusetts, May 14, 1754; and in 1774 united with the Baptist Church in Bellingham, from which body he received license to preach at the age of twenty years. He was ordained in 1776. His first ministerial labors were in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, where he had a circuit of one hundred and twenty miles in length. For some time, revivals almost constantly followed his labors. In about two years he had baptized four hundred individuals. In the fourteen years of his preaching, in that part of the country, he baptized seven hundred. In 1790 he removed to New England. After preaching awhile in Connecticut and in Conway, Massachusetts, he settled at Cheshire, in the latter State, where he resided for nearly half a century, though making frequent preaching tours through Vermont, Virginia, New York, and many other States. He died in January 1841, in his eighty-seventh year. The life of Leland was one of astonishing activity and distinguished usefulness. During his ministry of sixty-eight years he traveled seventy. five thousand miles, preached eight thousand sermons, and baptized one thousand five hundred converts to Christ. Wherever he went he produced a sensation. He was listened to by politicians, and by the relig ious, by the learned and the unlearned, by the refined and the vulgar, by the young and the old, and always with intense interest, sometimes causing them to weep by his pathos and power, and sometimes producing the contrary effect by his marked eccentricities. Sternly independent, a true patriot and defender of civil and religious rights, possessed of rare natural endowments, shrewd, clear-headed, absolutely fearless in the discharge of duty, whether in the pulpit, council, or legislative chamber, he was sure to excite attention and leave the impress of his strong will. Besides his numerous contributions to periodicals, political, moral, and religious, he published over thirty pamphlets, sermons and poems. Leland belonged to a class of ministers now rapidly passing awayself-made, deep-thinking, strong-minded, gospel-loving, hard-working, and often eminently useful men, who toiled for their Master, and looked for their reward in heaven. We introduce the following sermon not only as a specimen from this class of preachers, but as exhibiting the marks of decided genius, and powers of graphic description. It is very lengthy, and its chief excellence lies in the first part-the portion of it which is selected and which is a sublime prose-poem. It was first preached at Grafton, Massachusetts. A few unimportant alterations are made, to suit the abridged form in which it is here given. THE JARRINGS OF HEAVEN RECONCILED BY THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS. "And by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven."-COLOSSIANS, i. 20. The reconciliation of "things in heaven," is the part of the text which I shall attend to. Let reverence and humility possess my heart, while I develop the character of the Deity-and let all who hear me, at awful dis tance, bow. All the changes that have taken place from the beginning until now, and all that will take place hereafter, give to the Almighty no new ideas, furnish Him with no novel matter for consideration. Things which are past, present, or to come, with men, are all in the eternal now of the great JEHOVAH; and yet He speaks of Himself as if thoughts and designs entered His mind in a train of succession. The Divine Being is not composed of parts, or possessed of passions like men; He nevertheless, in condescension to our weakness, speaks of Himself as having head, eyes, ears, face, mouth, etc.; also as being jealous, angry, pacified, reconciled, having His anger turned away, and the like. Our text implies a contention in heaven; and that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ undertook to reconcile the contending parties to Himself, by Jesus Christ; and that Jesus obtained a peace among all the jarring interests in heaven, by the blood of the cross. The particulars to be attended to, are, I. To explain the cause of this contention; and, II. To nominate the parties at variance, together with their re spective pleas. First. I am to explain the cause of this contention. The rebeln of man against His God, is that which gave rise to this conten tion. When this contention began in heaven (to speak after the manner of men) the great I AM arraigned the criminal, man, and summoned all the contending parties to appear and make their pleas, before the great white throne of divine glory. Which leads me, Secondly. To treat of the contending parties and their pleas. The Holy Law began: "My rise is not from revelation, although that does me honor; throughout the second volume I hold conspicuous rank and have been magnified and obeyed by the Son of God. But my origin is from the great scale of being itself; so that if there had been no revelation among men, honor and regard would have been my due. Yet with all the sacred majesty due to my character, man, the dependent creature, has risen in rebellion and disregarded my voice; not only in one instance, but sin, taking advantage by me, has wrought in him all manner of concupiscence so that the imagination of his heart is only evil continually. Now we know a law is nothing without a penalty to enforce it; and a penalty threatened is but a piece of mockery unless it is executed. In this case, therefore, should man escape with impunity, the Divine government would be reduced to contempt, and every fugitive vagrant would be hardened in his wickedness. My demand, therefore, is, that man should die without mercy." Truth next approached the throne, and after attending to and confirming all which the holy law had said, added, “The soul that sins shall die-cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the law-he that offends in one point is guilty of the whole-the wicked shall be turned into hell-in the day thou rebellest thou shalt surely die. These are the true sayings of God, sentences which came from the mouth of that Being who can not lie; the veracity of the Almighty is therefore pledged that the sinner, man, be speedily executed, without delay-for, if sentence against an evil work be not speedily executed, the hearts of the vicious will be fully set on mischief, and nothing but anarchy and confusion will be seen in the empire." Justice then advanced, with piercing eyes like flaming streams, and burning tongue like the devouring fire, and made his plea, as follows: "My name may sound inharmonious to the guilty, but that which is just must be right, and the least deviation therefrom must be wrong! I plead for nothing but what is just. I come not with an ex post facto law, to inflict a penalty which was not known at the time the sin was committed, but I come to demand the life and blood of the rebel man, who sinned with eyes opened-for guilt will always stain the throne of glory till vengeance is taken on the traitor." Holiness then addressed the sovereign Arbiter of life and death in the words following: "My name and nature forbid the continuance of the sinner, man, in the empire. He is full of wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores; from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot there is no soundness in him; among all his helpers there is no healing medicine, and if there was, yet he is so stubborn that he would not apply it. Therefore, as two can neither walk nor live together except they be agreed, either the polluted sinner or consum. mate holiness must quit the regions." By this time darkness and smoke filled the temple, and seven thunders uttered their voices. The flashes of vindictive fire broke out impatient from the throne, and the angelic messenger waved his dread weapon, which high brandished shone, thirsting for human blood, while hell grew proud in hopes of prey, and laughed profanely loud. The sun became black as sack-cloth, and the heavens were all in angry convulsion. The earth shook to its center, and the everlasting hills trembled. Angels stood astonished at the awful emblems of Divine displeasure, expecting each moment to see the rebel hurled to eternal darkness, as they had seen their fallen brethren, who left their first estate in a former period. Omnipotence appeared as the executioner of the criminal, clothed in panoply divine-robed in awful majesty. Thunders rolled before him, the shafts of lightning darted through the ethereal vault; the trumpet sounded, the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of the Lord. At the brightness that was before Him His thicks clouds passed bailstones and coals of fire. In one hand He had an iron rod with which He could dash His enemies to pieces like a potter's vessel, and in the other a sharp sword, with two edges. He set one foot on the sea, and the other on the earth, and lifted His hand to heaven. His face was awfully majestic, and His voice as the roaring of a lion; but none could learn from His appearance whether He chose to strike the vengeful blow, or interest Himself in behalf of the criminal. At length He spoke: "I am able to destroy as I was mighty to create; nothing is too hard for Me to do. All worlds were spoken into existence by My word, and all material worlds hang upon nothing, through My power; yet I have no will, no choice of My own. Let all the contending parties agree, and I am at their command, all acquiescent. The charges against the criminal, as they now stand, call for My vindictive stroke, but if any expedient shall be found to overrule the pleas which have been made, when the final result is made, then I shall act. Vicious beings feel power and forget right, but Omnipotence is governed by right. The works which I perform are those which all the perfections of Deity, in concert, point out." Wisdom then arose, and spake to the following effect: "Why is the decree so hasty from the King? The matter is of the first importance. One soul is worth more than all the world. The pending decision not only affects this one criminal, but the millions and millions of human kind. I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions-I therefore object to the execu tion of the criminal, not to controvert the pleas of Law, Truth, and Justice, but to wait until it shall be known whether man has any friend at court who is wise, powerful, and good enough to relieve him, in a way with which Law, Truth, and Justice will be satisfied." Love then came forward, in all his winning forms; his bosom swelled with philanthropy, and his eye bespoke the benevolence of his heart. In mellifluent accents he began, "My name is Love. No one in heaven claims higher rank than myself, for God is Love, of course none deserves to be heard and regarded more than I do. My love to man is everlasting, and neither death nor life, angels, principalities, nor powers, things present, things to come, nor any other creature shall ever extinguish my love. "Mine is an unchanging love, Higher than the heights above: Should the rebel, therefore, be doomed to perdition, with all his vast progeny, the cross of my love would cause eternal mourning in heaven; to prevent which my fervent cry is, Let the rebel live." Grace also appeared on the side of the criminal, and made the following plea: "If a creature receives from a fellow-creature, or from his God, a compensation for any services rendered unto him, it is reward and not grace; but if he receives a favor, for which he has no claim on the donor, it is grace. If, moreover, a donor confers a favor, not only on a needy creature, who has no claim on the donor, nor any thing to buy with; but on one, who in addition to his need, has contracted guilt, and is an enemy to the donor, this is grace of a marvelous kind. This is my name, and this is my memorial, and shall be through all ages. To do good for evil is godlike. My plea, therefore, is, that all the transgressions of the criminal may be blotted out-cast behind the back of his Godsunk in the midst of the sea, and he himself raised to a station far more exalted than he possessed before he sinned. If this should |