The work was gloriously begun on the day of Pentecost, and men and demons have never yet been able entirely to stop its progress. The pope and the devil tried their best, for a long time, to keep the digging and hewing tools of the twelve wise master-builders concealed in the vaults of the monasteries; but Luther, with the lamp of God in his hand, discovered them, brought them forth, and set them at work; and millions of lively stones have since been dug out, and sent up from the pit, to be placed in the walls of “God’s building.” And still the gospel is mighty in the salvation of souls, of which we have abundant evidence in the principality. What multitudes were converted at Langeiththo in the days of Rowlands and Williams; when two thousand communicants in the winter, and three thousand in the summer, met every month in the same place around the table of the Lord! And there are now in Wales hundreds of large and flourishing churches among the Baptists and Independents. Glory to God, that I have in my own possession the register of hundreds, who have been hewn from the flinty rock, and raised from the horrible pit, to a place in the Lord’s holy temple—from drunkenness to sobriety, from unbelief to faith in Christ, from enmity to reconciliation to God, from persecution to patient suffering for righteousness’ sake, from disobedience to the filial temper of “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty;” and many of them I have seen going home, rejoicing, to their Father’s house above! Hark! what do I hear? The hammers and chisels of mercy all over the mountain of the militant church. The great Architect is building up Zion. He is gathering his materials from Europe, and Asia, and Africa, and America. Glory to God! I hear his footsteps to-day in this mountain; I see his hand in this congregation. Brethren in the ministry, we are workers together with him. Delightful work! How easy it is to preach, when the hand of God is with us! Let us labour on! The topstone will soon be brought forth with shouting, the sound of the building shall cease, and we shall receive our reward! V. The gracious design for which this Divine Foundation is prepared, is the justification and sanctification of sinners. “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” Christ came to destroy the works of the devil—to take away sin by the offering of himself. As the moon is illuminated by the sun, so the rites and ceremonies of the old testament are illustrated by the facts and doctrines of the new. The priesthood of Jesus explains the priesthood of Aaron. The one sacrifice of Calvary explains all the sacrifices that went before. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ enters the windows of Solomon’s temple, and penetrates the Holy of Holies within the vail. All the bloody offerings of the Mosaic ritual were intended only as types of him who “removed the iniquity of that land in one day.”