2. _The devil_ "_had the power of death_."

(i.) We must not understand this as meaning that Satan has direct,

independent, and absolute control over death, inflicting it how, and

when, and where, and on whom, he will. The later Jewish writers taught

the horrible doctrine that the fallen angels have power or authority

generally in reference to life and death. But this never was the case.

Death was the sentence pronounced by God upon man, and it could only be

inflicted by his appointment and concurrence. The power of life and

death is necessarily in God's hands, and his only.

(ii.) But Satan had the power of death, in this sense; namely, that he

tempted man to commit the sin which "brought death into the world, and

all our woe." He enticed Eve to sin, partly by denying that her offence

would be visited with the punishment of death. "Ye shall not surely

die," was the lie by which he contradicted and defied the God of truth,

and induced the woman "to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil." And so, he was "a murderer from the beginning." "God

made man to be immortal, an image of his own eternity; nevertheless,

through envy of the devil came death into the world." In this sense,

then, as the author and introducer of that sin whose "wages" is death,

Satan "had the power of death."

(iii.) Moreover, it is the work of Satan to invest death with its chief

terrors. We shrink indeed from the humiliating prospect of corruption

and decay; we cling fondly to those companionships, associations, and

pleasures, from which death for ever separates us; we deprecate and dread

the blighting of our earthly hopes, and the ruthless frustration of our

schemes. These are very painful accessories of death; but they are not

its sting; they do not make it a poison for the soul as well as for the

body. "The sting of death is sin." That sting has been drawn for the

Christian, and death hath no terrors for him. But, had the power of the

devil in death been unassailed and uncounteracted, the dissolution of the

body and the eternal ruin of the soul would have been alike complete and

irrecoverable. By the consciousness of guilt, Satan has infused an

element of insupportable terror into death. For it is that consciousness

which makes death dreadful. It is quite probable that, if man had not

sinned, his body would have undergone some great change, that it might be

fitted for that "kingdom of God," which "flesh and blood cannot inherit;"

but such change would have inflicted no pain, and involved no

humiliation; it would only have been a change "from glory to glory;" and

would have been anticipated with no sentiments contrary to desire and

hope. But death, besides its own inherent ghastliness, is rendered

dreadful through the malice of the devil, and the guilty fear of the

penal hereafter which haunts all those who are in his power.

3. _Jesus died to destroy_ "_him that had the power of death_." He has

indeed provisionally destroyed death itself for all "the sons of God."

"Death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed." But it is not absolutely

and immediately abolished. The death of the body remains, even for God's

people, as a sad and humiliating monument of the evil of sin; but to them

it is not now a punishment, but the mode of their birth into a new and

more glorious life.

"Mortals cry, 'A man is dead!'

Angels sing, 'A child is born!'"

It may be truly said of the hour when a good man dies, that it is the

hour when he enters into life. And this is because Jesus destroyed "him

that had the power of death." He did not annihilate him, the word does

not mean that, but He neutralized, counteracted, stripped him of his

power. The whole design and effect of death, when in the power of the

devil, has been defeated and reversed by the death of Christ. Though the

bodies of his people be consigned to the grave, it is in sure and certain

hope of the resurrection to everlasting life. That melancholy seed-time

in which we cast the dust of our beloved into the earth, is the prelude

to a glorious harvest; that when "He giveth his beloved sleep," is

preparatory to their awaking to glory and immortality. "It is sown in

corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness, it is

raised in power; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is

sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." This is what

Christ's death has done for the bodies of his people; and is it not an

entire breaking of the power of the devil over death? As to their souls,

death delivers them from the burden of the flesh, that they may be in joy

and felicity with God. "Absent from the body," they are for ever

"present with the Lord." Death is no longer a dark and dreadful phantom,

rising from the abyss, to drag down his victims and gorge himself upon

them. He is an angel, pure and bright, sent to summon God's beloved to

their Father's house above. That which men naturally dread as the crown

and climax of all evils, becomes an object of wistful longing, for God's

servants have "a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far

better." This stripping away of Satan's power, this destruction of "him

that had the power of death," is due to the death of Jesus. He thus

redeemed us from the debt of death, "acknowledging the debt in the manner

in which he removed it." "Christ, by giving himself up to death, has

acknowledged the guilt, and truly atoned for it; He has, in one act,

atoned for the sinner and judged the sin." By dying for sins, He

expiated that which gives to death its "sting," its power to injure and

to terrify. He

"Entered the grave in mortal flesh,

And dwelt among the dead,"

that He might put an end to Satan's power in and over death. Some sound

and excellent divines are of opinion that, in the interval between his

death and resurrection He literally "descended into hell," and there, in

personal conflict, grappled with and overthrew the devil. However this

may be, it is certain that the bruising of his heel by Satan was the

chosen means for his bruising of Satan's head. Our enemy, who brought

death into the world, is entirely baffled and defeated, as to the purpose

and effect of that calamity, in the case of all who believe in the death

of Christ. Their last act of faith gives them "the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ." Then the God of peace "finally beats down Satan

under their feet." Death is "swallowed up of life." What power over

death has the devil in such a case? Is it not wholly counteracted? Is

not death a wholly different, nay, opposite thing to what he intended,

when by tempting and conquering our first parents he brought it into the

world? The body of the good man "is buried in peace, and his soul is

blessed for evermore." He shall never more, through the long eternity of

bliss, be assailed or injured by "him that had the power of death:" nor

shall he see his enemy again, unless it be to triumph openly over him, in

that day when "death, and hell shall be cast into the lake that burneth

with fire and brimstone." Many good people are unduly afraid of the

devil, and especially they are in dread of his possible power in their

last moments. But we may dismiss this fear as altogether needless and

unworthy. Christ has not only rendered our great enemy utterly powerless

for evil, but has, by his own most precious death, compelled even Satan

into the service of the sons of God. He has turned the supreme calamity

brought into the world by the arch-fiend into the supreme glory and joy

of all who believe in himself. To all those who are by Jesus' death "to

life restored," the day of death is infinitely preferable to the day of

birth, for then beginneth that new life which shall never die. "I know

whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which

I have committed unto Him until that day."

II. LET US NOW CONTEMPLATE THE WORK OF JESUS, IN HIS DEATH, AS A WORK OF

DELIVERANCE. "And deliver them who, through fear of death, were all

their lifetime subject to bondage." If we ascertain the import of this

description of those whom Christ died to deliver, we shall easily

understand the nature and mode of the deliverance wrought out for them.

1. _They were in bondage_. They were in fact enslaved by "him who had

the power of death." This is a very fearful view of our natural state,

and one which contradicts all the conclusions of our own vanity and

self-complacency. Unconverted men believe that Christians are slaves,

fettered by doubts, scruples, self-accusations; bound in the bands of

moral routine, and able only to move in certain prescribed grooves;

afraid to do as they list. According to their notion, true liberty

consists in throwing off religious restraints, and following as much as

may be "the devices and desires of our own hearts." But this is a

terrible delusion, which only serves to show the depth and subtlety of

him who, besides having "the power of death," is also "the father of

lies," the great deceiver and ensnarer of mankind. History is full of

analogous examples among men. In how many instances have the most cruel

and remorseless tyrants made use of the passions and brute force of the

multitude to secure their own elevation to absolute power, inducing their

victims to forge and rivet their own chains. And it is so in this case.

Sinners are the slaves of Satan; those evil desires and inclinations

which they so recklessly obey are but the tools and bonds of the great

oppressor. The wicked man sells his soul to the devil for the price of

indulgence in "the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season." There

is a very easy way of testing this question of freedom or bondage in sin.

If you are really free, free to do as you like, you can do good as well

as evil; you can give up your companionship with iniquity, and break your

covenant with darkness, as readily, and with as little difficulty, as you

made the compact. Let the man who rejoices in his liberty to sin try to

abandon iniquity; he will surely find it an impossible task. However

clearly he may discern the purity, justice, and goodness of God's law,

however passionately he may long, and however earnestly he may strive, to

regulate his life by it, he will find himself "carnal, sold under sin;"

he will "find another law in his members warring against the law of his

mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin and death." It

is easy to float with the stream, and the stronger the current the more

buoyantly and exultingly it bears you on. But try to breast the current.

You will soon find that you have undertaken a task which is "impossible

with men," and will sink exhausted and undone with the vain endeavour.

Alas! Satan is in very truth the lord of every enslaved soul, not

rightfully, only by virtue of the foulest usurpation; but he is so in

fact, and he "binds our captive souls fast in his slavish chains." And

by this bondage unto sin he holds us captive to death. His law is "the

law of sin and death;" and till Christ redeem and actually deliver us, we

are bound over to endure "the bitter pains of eternal death." It is an

awful thought, but it is as true as it is awful. Our cruel and

relentless jailer keeps us in the prison of sin, shut up under his power,

with a view to our everlasting death. May we be made conscious of our

enslavement, for till we become so, we are not likely to seek for

deliverance!

2. _The sure sign of bondage to Satan is continual subjection_, _or

rather liability_, _to the fear of death_. It would scarcely be true to

say of the great mass of the unconverted, that they are continually

haunted and incommoded by the fear of death. Their general condition is

one of thoughtless and careless ease, but they are always, even through

their whole life, liable to be thus haunted and incommoded. Whenever the

thought of death is brought home to them, as in the course of events it

is ever and again sure to be, they are appalled and terrified. They then

feel that death has a sting, and they have some foretaste of its

sharpness and venom. They see nothing in death but the ruin of all their

earthly hopes and schemes, and nothing after death but "a certain fearful

looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the

adversaries," and when they seem to be themselves stricken by the hand of

death, how do the terrors of hell make them afraid!

"O death, how shocking must thy summons be,

To him that is at ease in his possessions!"

There is a difference however, and a very great one, between the fear of

death and the fear of dying. Many good people are often tormented by the

latter kind of fear. It is frequently the result of a sensitive

organization, or ill health, or a naturally gloomy temperament; and many

who have been much troubled by it through life have found it to vanish

completely when the supreme moment came. But the fear of death is

founded on the consciousness of unpreparedness for it, and on the

anticipation of the punishments which it will bring. Every unsaved

sinner has abundant reason for the fear which, however he may laugh it

off, will assuredly at times gain the mastery over him. The brooding

sense of insecurity; the secret sudden pang, stabbing him in the midst of

his wildest joys; the desperate effort never to think, and the resolute

refusal ever to speak of death; tell their tale, and show that the slaves

of Satan are always liable to the fear of death. O, if this be your

case, it is high time to look to yourselves! If you cannot bear the

thought of death; if the great and solemn hereafter is haunted by images

that scare and threaten you; if you "put far away the evil day;" be sure

there is something radically wrong. Be sure, by that token, that you are

the slave of the devil. Be sure that you "are in jeopardy every hour."

Never rest, never for a moment be satisfied, till you can look death

calmly in the face, and discern for yourself the life to come, and your

inheritance in heaven.

3. _For we all may have deliverance from our bondage to Satan_, _and

from this characteristic effect and sign of it_. The death of Jesus has

provided this deliverance for us. By depriving Satan of his power over

death, by expiating that sin which is the sting of death, and so entirely

reversing and counteracting its penal efficacy, Christ hath wrought out

for us a great salvation. And when we commit ourselves to Him, relying

on the efficacy of his atonement, our chains are broken, and our craven

fears are banished. Among the "first words" of newly-converted souls

none are more common or triumphant than these, "I am not afraid to die

now! I have a hope beyond the grave!" It is indeed a mighty

deliverance. What calm, what security, what blessed hope does it

inspire! To lose all fear of the last and greatest of human calamities;

to look into the face of that which was "once an uncouth hideous thing,"

and to find that through our Saviour's death it hath become "most fair

and full of grace;" to see no longer a dark and shrouded fiend arrayed in

mortal terrors, and poising an envenomed dart for the purpose of laying

us low, and compassing our lasting ruin; but a shining and smiling

messenger from the King of kings, bidding us to an everlasting banquet in

his royal palace; is not this true, priceless, boundless liberty,--worth

toiling, striving, suffering, dying for? This flower of immortal hope

blooms for each of us at the foot of the cross. If by the death of Jesus

we gain spiritual life, we shall rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and

shall look forward to the day of our death as the day of our eternal

marriage with the King of glory. Let us not lose this unspeakable

privilege! Let us, by faith in the death of our Lord, secure our freedom

and our birthright! And, as we think of our smitten friends, let us

thank God for their final deliverance from the power of death, and their

admission into everlasting life. Finally, let us more and more glory in

that cross whereby our Saviour Christ "hath abolished death, and hath

brought life and immortality to light."

INCONSIDERATION DEPLORED.

REV. JOSHUA PRIESTLEY.

"And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their

wickedness."--HOSEA vii. 2.

Is it possible for any man to conceive of truths more fitted to arrest

the attention and impress the heart than are those contained in this

volume? It has been said that if a blank book had been put into our

hands, and every one of us had been asked to put into it the promises we

should like to find there, we could not have employed language so

explicit, so expressive, and so suited to all our varied wants, as is

here. And may I not say that no facts and declarations and appeals could

be more fitted to rouse the conscience, and to regulate the life, than

those we here find. Alas! however, with what affecting appropriateness

may the Almighty say of Englishmen as of Israelites--of persons living

eighteen centuries after Christ's death, as of those living eight

centuries before it--"They consider not in their hearts that I remember

all their wickedness."

This passage brings before us two parties. One is the speaker, the other

the persons addressed. It states a fact respecting each. Let us look at

these facts:--

I. "I remember," says Jehovah, "all their wickedness." What an idea

does this statement furnish of the unlimited vastness of the Divine mind!

For if He remembered all the evil deeds of all the Israelites, He

remembered the evil deeds of all other persons. If He remembered all the

evil deeds of all then living, He remembered all the evil deeds of all

who ever had lived. And if He remembered all evil deeds, assuredly He

remembered all good ones. The Scriptures declare this fact for the

comfort of the righteous. What a cheering declaration to a good man is

that found in Hebrews vi. 10, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your

work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye

have ministered to the saints, and do minister." What a vast number of

incidents are included in the space of but one year in the history of

each one of us! What a still vaster number in the whole period of life!

And when we think of the ten hundred millions of mankind now peopling our

globe; when we add to these the almost countless millions that have

departed, and realize the fact that every incident of every individual of

them is remembered--remembered as distinctly too as if one solitary

incident were all that memory was charged with, what an idea is given us

of the vastness of the Divine mind! What can we do but wonder and adore!

My text says much, but like many others, it means more than it says. How

much of what Scripture intends to teach us shall we fail to learn, if we

do not consider what is included and involved, as well as what is

affirmed! This declaration imports three things. It imports--

1. That God observes all our wickedness. To remember a thing implies

knowledge of it. This knowledge the Scriptures frequently declare the

Divine Being to possess. They tell us that His eyes run to and fro the

earth, beholding the evil and the good; that all things are naked and

open to His eyes. They go further. They teach us that He is always

present with us all, that there is no part of this earth, of the vast

universe, from which He is ever absent. David expresses himself

strikingly on this point--"Whither shall I go from Thy spirit?" says he,

"or wither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven,

Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell (hades), behold, Thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of

the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold

me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall

be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night

shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee."

Psalm cxxxix. 7-12. How certainly therefore does God observe all our

wickedness! Did we but constantly realize this fact what a restraining

power it would exert over us when we are tempted to evil. A man left his

cottage very early one morning taking with him a sack, and accompanied by

his son, a little boy. That boy was a Sunday scholar, and little

suspected his father's errand. After proceeding some distance the father

entered a turnip field, and throwing down his sack, looked in this

direction and in that to see whether any one was observing him. On

discovering the father's object, the child said, "Father, there was one

way you did not look." "Indeed," replied he, hastily; "which was that?"

"You did not look upward," was the rejoinder, "and God is observing you."

That was a word in season. The father's arm was paralyzed. He took up

his sack and returned home. Remember, my friends, that the sleepless eye

of the Omnipresent One is upon you. The man that goes forth at the

still, dark, hour of midnight to plunder our habitations, how startled

would he be if an inmate should noiselessly and suddenly present himself

before him--the servant that robs his master, the circulator of base

coin, the man of fraud--would these practise their misdeeds if they

realized this truth: "Thou God seest me?" Would the slanderer, or

backbiter, or hypocrite, indulge their habits if they realized this

truth? Of what immense benefit would the realization of this truth be,

both personally and socially!

2. When God says that He remembers all our wickedness, He means us to

understand that He will exhibit it all. Why did He tell this people that

He remembered all their wickedness? The Scriptures answer that question.

They inform us that He intends to make use of the stores of which memory

is possessed, and that He intends to make this use of them--to hold them

up to the gaze of the universe. They teach us that the conduct of every

individual will be investigated and published. "For God shall bring

every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or

whether it be evil." "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall

give account thereof in the day of judgment." Important purposes will he

answered by this. A declaration will be made of the righteousness of God

in condemning the ungodly. He will hold up to view the nature and extent

of the requirements He made of us, their reasonableness and

beneficialness we shall all acknowledge. He will then make known the

innumerable acts of goodness He bestowed--His forbearance to inflict

punishment, and the various methods He employed to bring us to

repentance. And by the side of all this He will exhibit our conduct

toward Him--our ingratitude, our disobedience, our perverseness. And

with what enormity will these things then appear invested! So guilty

will thy conduct then appear, O sinner, that thou wilt be constrained to

exclaim: "Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shall be,

because Thou hast judged thus." What an exhibition will he made on that

day!

3. When God says that He remembers all our wickedness, He means us to

understand that He will punish for it all, if it be not repented of. The

maintenance of law and order in the universe require the Divine Being to

display His abhorrence of transgression. And how can that abhorrence be

suitably displayed otherwise than by punishment? And the punishment must

be of a degree to represent the guiltiness of the conduct. It must be

impartial, and be inflicted therefore on every transgressor. The rich

man cannot buy exemption from it. The man of mighty intellect, or

powerful eloquence, cannot persuade himself, not to say the righteous

Judge, into the belief that he ought to be exempt. The man of good

desires and pious resolutions, he who was born of praying parents, and

often bowed his knees at the footstool of his Maker, but delayed to

surrender his heart, cannot escape. No, my friends, the decree of the

Almighty has gone forth, it is irreversible--there is none more

righteous, and none that will more certainly be fulfilled: "Though hand

join in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished." "The wicked shall be

driven away in his wickedness." "The wicked shall be turned into hell."

What a mercy that we are not receiving our merited punishment at this

moment! And why are we not? Because the God whom we have so shamefully

and inexcusably resisted and provoked "is long-suffering to us-ward, not

willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Opportunity is afforded for repentance. He employs means to bring us to

repentance. How good, how loving, God is! "God is love."

Can any of you still resist the strivings of his Spirit? "Turn ye, turn

ye, why will ye die?"

Christ has died that you might live, live with Him in His kingdom of

glory for ever. He shed for you His precious blood. For you He now

intercedes at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And if you come to

Him, however guilty you are, truly sorry for your sins, and believe His

own gracious declaration, that He came into the world to save sinners, to

seek and to save that which was lost, He will pardon and bless you. "If

we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in

us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our

sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

God remembers all our wickedness. How much of it do you remember? How

little of it do any of us remember! The past is to a large extent a

vague and dim expanse. Many of you have climbed these noble hills, and

as you stood on the summit, you observed that distinct as were the

objects near, those remote were quite indistinct. It is but a few

conspicuous objects you can discern at any considerable distance. Just

so it is in reviewing our past lives. We can call to mind a few things.

We can remember well--ah, we cannot forget, we have often wished we

could, an act of rebellion against our parents of which we were once

guilty; of obstinacy toward a master; of ingratitude toward a benefactor;

of dishonourableness toward a friend, or unkindness toward a neighbour.

There are several sad deeds in the life of every one of us which we

cannot forget, but how many which we have all forgot. The things we can

remember are as the milestones to the weary traveller, far, far apart.

Yes, we forget, but God does not. He remembers them all. There is not a

single improper word we have ever uttered, not a wrong feeling we have

cherished, not an ungodly deed we have done, not a duty we have

neglected, but God knew it, will exhibit it, and if unrepented of, will

punish for it. Hear it, ponder it, hide it in the depths of your heart,

God remembers all our wickedness.

Having considered the import of the declaration as it regards Almighty

God, we come now to consider--

II. The charge against the Israelites. They are not charged, you

observe, with denying the truth the Divine Being affirms respecting

Himself, or even with doubting it. They admitted it, believed it, but it

was unpalatable to them, and therefore they put it away from their

thoughts. What a melancholy exhibition of character was this! And yet

does not this declaration hold true of greatly more than one-half of the

population of this evangelized land? Does it not hold true of every

_drunkard_? Could he spend his hard-earned money in that which stupifies

his mind, injures his body, degrades his character, shortens his life,

and destroys his soul; and besides all this, brings want and wretchedness

on his family, and makes himself a scandal and reproach to

humanity--could any man yield himself to the power of intoxicating liquor

that considered what is involved in such a course?

Does not this charge hold true of every _sensualist_? Could any man

become the victim of degrading passions, could he consent to sacrifice

the mental and moral part of his nature--the man to the animal--if he

considered what was due to himself, to society, and to God?

Does not the charge hold true of the _pleasure hunter_? As a condiment,

as a relaxation, pleasure seeking, if of the right sort, is not only

allowable but commendable. He who gave life intended it to be a joy. To

be always seeking after pleasure, however, exercises a dissipating and

debilitating influence on the mind, and prevents the acquirement of true

nobleness and worth of character. And would a creature, which is the

highest workmanship of Infinite Excellence with which we are acquainted,

yield himself to this, if given to the consideration of the fact the

Almighty here states respecting himself?

To mention but one other class of character, does not the charge hold

true of _the fraudulent_? Would a man rob his soul to enrich his pocket,

would he narrow his heart to expand his purse, would he build up a

character that is to endure for ever with such ill-tempered mortar as

falsehood; would he be willing to encounter all the piercing looks and

accusing words with which those he wronged will one day assail him, if he

had taken his relationship to God, and man, and eternity, into

consideration?

What incalculable mischief and misery this neglect of consideration has

wrought in our world! Had our first parents considered the sad

consequences that would ensue to themselves and their posterity, would

they have plucked the forbidden fruit? Through what a long and mournful

list of events that have happened from that day to this might I easily

go, all of which would have been avoided if right consideration had been

given! Every day during those six thousand years a multitude of such

events have happened. Is there one of you but can recal deeds respecting

which you say with bitterness of heart, I wish I had given it

consideration--I wish I had considered it more fully?

My young friends permit me to urge consideration upon you. Your welfare

for both worlds is largely in your own keeping. You can secure it or

destroy it. But to secure it, consideration is essential. If you don't

addict yourselves to reflection you will be largely at the mercy of

impulse, be enticed probably by evil companions, and get wrong perhaps in

a thousand ways. Reluctant as you may feel at first to engage in

it--uninteresting as you may deem it, do not, as rational creatures,

prefer the pleasing to the right and good. The young man of reflection

is more respected, more valuable, and unspeakably more happy, than the

frivolous and vain. If you forget all else I say, do not forget this--it

is the declaration of your loving Father in heaven, who wishes to welcome

you there, but can welcome those only who yield to Him a filial love--"I

remember all their wickedness."

THE FRIEND WHOSE YEARS DO NOT FAIL.

REV. W. ARTHUR, M.A.

"And thy years shall not fail."--HEBREWS i. 12.

You know that these words are taken from the hundred and second Psalm.

There, they are addressed to God the Creator; here, to Christ the

Redeemer. In both cases they express the same truths. Man finds himself

here, looks out to what he can see around him, and then in thought passes

on to what he cannot see. He knows that a very little while ago he was

not here, he was not anywhere. He has an instinct within which tells him

that though it is so short a time since he was not the time will never

come when he will not be--an instinct that cries for a permanent

foundation. He is not such foundation himself--he feels that. He stands

upon the foundation of the earth: he did not lay it; it did not lay

itself. Those layers of rock were not their own framers. But the

foundation _was_ laid. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the

foundation of the earth."

He is under a covering as well as on a foundation. He did not pitch that

canopy, nor fix those lights, nor hang those curtains by whose silent

closing and withdrawing the light is heightened or dimmed. "The heavens

are the work of thy hand." But will these last? Will this earth that I

stand upon last? No; I see on it the marks of age and decay as on

myself. Like me it will perish. And those heavens that are over me,

they shall perish--will all things perish? Will everything that is go

out of being? "Thou remainest." They shall wax old, it is true, but

that is only as if a garment waxed old; "As a vesture shalt thou fold

them up and they shall be changed." All this that the eye can see above,

below, around, is to the great King but as the robe upon the Sovereign to

his person, and dominion, and when he folds up that vesture and lays it

aside he will command another wherewith to show his glory to his

subjects. "They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax

old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they

shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail!"

We have here a preacher, a listener, a subject: changeful nature, mortal

man, immutable Godhead.

Changeful nature is a perpetual preacher, evermore proclaiming to us the

twofold lesson, our own mortality and God's immutable glory and power.

"Thy years shall not fail." What strange language applied to the Divine

Being--perfectly natural as applied to us--"years!" Our life is finite,

our life is measured, our life is dealt out to us in parcels. For us to

speak of our "years" is natural, but when we look up to Him that is

unmeasured, infinite, eternal, then this word "years" becomes but the

representative of our small transient life when trying to contrast itself

with his broad and Infinite Being. We are constantly speaking of two

things wherewith we find ourselves related--space and time: and what are

they? We hardly know. We know but something like this: space is a

measured distance in infinity; time a measured duration in eternity.

We are launched in the midst of a sea of eternity, and all the time that

comes to us comes by solemn public measurement, measurement conducted in

the most formal and stately manner by the hand of the Creator. He made

that heaven from which we can never shut our regard--we must see it; and

in it He set those lights "for signs and for seasons and for days and for

years." He might easily have given us a being that would have flowed on

evenly from its beginning to its close without anything to mark it off

into stages. We may almost watch a sunbeam starting from the sun and

racing all the way to our world, passing over it, far on beyond it, till

our eye and even our thought cannot follow it, and never anything to

check or register its progress.

But not so the career that God has appointed to us. Everything is dealt

to us under an economy of measure, of trust and of account. "For

signs"--He set those things above us for signs. Cannot earth be a sign

to herself? Cannot man be his own directory? Cannot the seas and the

mountains and the rivers and trees and houses be their own tokens? Try

this. Let that ship at sea, on which the fog has settled, ask the waves

to say where is north, south, east or west; and when the gale springs up

and the clouds cover the heavens let her ask the winds to tell how far

from port. No, if the heavens give no signs she has none, she cannot

tell where she is or whither she is going.

Suppose you find yourself within a mile of the house in which you were

born: you know, as you think, every step of the way as well as you know

your own bedroom; but there is neither sun nor moon nor star, the heavens

are completely shut off and you are left to earth alone. Will the trees

tell you the way? Will the houses show themselves? Will the road be its

own exhibitor? No, if heaven fails you you cannot even see your own

hand. You are under the perpetual preaching of the sky, that all your

hours and all your movements are dependent upon heaven!

"For seasons" as well as for signs. The Lord might easily have

established our lifetime under a different economy; might have given us

one perpetual summer, or a perpetual spring, or a uniform co-existence of

all the seasons, the fruits being sown, ripening and reaped

simultaneously. But not so. He has settled two things so clearly that

none, even the most sordid worm that ever wriggled under the clay,

showing himself above it as little as possible, can help seeing them.

First a fixed order that nothing can change and that proclaims one Lord,

one will, one dominion, one plan. The seasons come in regular

succession. Every man living knows when the summer is gone that winter

is coming. That will not and cannot be changed. Were the whole world to

conspire in one effort that spring should come next it would be

unavailing. The winter is coming. But with this fixed order is

established perpetual change, variety, mutability, so that although we

know the season that is coming we know not what kind of a season it shall

be, and all our temporal interests hang upon that question. When the

merchant has got his stock, when the man of pleasure has fixed for his

party, when the General has planned his campaign, when the Admiral has

laid down the arrangements for the battle, when the grand politician has

perfected the plot for a new crisis of the world, what must they do? Not

look to what the earth but what the heaven will do. Everything depends

upon that. They cannot decide the market price even of hard sovereigns,

they cannot foretell the value of their wheat, they cannot determine the

life and health of their soldiers or the hours and effect of movements

independent of that one consideration, what will the heavens do? Three

days rain will change a whole campaign or a harvest. By the arrangement

of the seasons we are constantly kept at the door of Divine mercy,

begging "Give us this day our daily bread." That eternal voice preaching

through all our temporal interests is to us the solemn, never-ceasing

protest against worldliness, earthliness, vanity, living for time, living

for the body; and, above all, against every impure or ungodly method of

attempting to secure our temporal aims.

"For days" as well as for seasons. The season passes slowly, but the

day--oh what a solemn appointment is that! When the Lord made the sun to

rule the day and the moon to rule the night it would have been very easy

for Him to make two suns so that we should bask in perpetual daylight.

But no, it was his will that our life should be cut into very short

lengths and that by a mark so deep, broad, black, that the dullest man

could not escape its impression. The dark gulf that lies between the

dead day and the day unborn is the ever recurring remembrancer--Thy days

are numbered; thy life is held under law; thy time is a measured current

of golden sands. Every particle as it comes may easily slip away, if

unwatched _will_ slip, and once past thy hand it will be borne off by the

rushing river and thou shalt never see it again, but if caught, held and

brought to the mint of the great King it will there be turned into

precious coin to serve in perpetuity the double purpose of enriching man

and recording the majesty of God. Seize upon thy days as they pass! The

heavens tell thee to do it; the dark and mantled earth tells thee; thy

drowsy faculties tell thee; thy weary limbs tell thee; all are saying

"numbered, numbered, numbered." Life is running away fast.

Not only for days but "for years." The days, as I have said, are short;

they pass rapidly, and we calculate that the days of our years are

threescore years and ten. And when you come to multiply 70 by 365 it

makes a very large number, and if we have lost a few handfuls of days,

well, cannot we make them up? Have we not been young, and are we not in

this pleasant watering place, where one must see life and have a little

pleasure, and if we do throw away a few days, why, cannot we recover

them? Can we say that of the years? Are the years so very

plentiful--such a large number assured to you that you can afford to

squander a few, to turn them not only to useless purposes but to bad

ones. Can you?--the years!--oh is not it wonderful, the way in which thy

Lord and my Lord, thy Creator and my Creator, marks out before our eye

the progress of the years?

Perhaps you may remember in childhood watching the day as it grew and

spread itself out, making conquests from the night and winning moments,

minutes, hours, till you began to think the day was going to do away the

night. You saw it stretching over the hours that once were dark till it

seemed as if the tips of the sunset touched the tips of the sunrise, and

still the light was gaining so that in a little time the darkness would

be all driven away and it would be day the twenty-four hours round. But

just then the night began to come back and the day grew shorter, dimmer,

colder, and the darkness spread itself over the light till it seemed as

if in its turn the day was going to be quenched and darkness to wrap up

the whole twenty-four hours. But then the day returned.

Was it an accident this first time? Would it ever occur again? You

watched it: just the same process and at the same time, and you began to

feel--it is a wheel! with its regulated, measured appointed movement;

steady, by rule it rises to a certain point, and then comes down to a

certain point, then turns again and comes up. It is a perfectly balanced

wheel, making its revolution steadily, steadily. I did not fix those

revolutions: the great Architect did! He knows how many the wheel itself

can perform; He knows what each revolution marks off and what it

accomplishes, and He knows too how many shall measure off my thread of

life. I do not know the number, you do not know; but this we do know, it

is marked upon the dial, and we are tolerably sure it is not more than

threescore and ten. Suppose you saw the dial of life before your eye as

plain as that dial is and the hand pointing twenty, thirty, forty, fifty

of the divisions gone--gone never to return! Suppose you felt that that

hand was pressing forward and would point and point to successive lines

till at last, without a moment's warning, the hour will strike and it is

over, no recall! Man of twenty, proud of thy youth! man of fifty, proud

of thy maturity! man of seventy, proud of thy years! are you prepared to

meet your God? Has your time been spent with a view to eternity? Has

the measure of your days been taken? Has the course of your years been

run in holiness? If not, by the deep voice of the heavens above thee;

that voice which evermore is speaking; by the night and the day, and the

season and the year, I charge thee prepare to meet thy God. For thy time

is passing and eternity at hand.

"Thy years shall not fail." The thought of man never feels that it can

say this to nature. He sees the stones themselves have marks of age and

decay--the very mountains, the very seas tell of change and limit. And

in the skies too far off for us to trace decay we trace something

else--measure. Everything is measured. The moon goes by measure and the

sun by measure, and the way of the stars is all measured. There are

clear tokens that not one of them is its own master or gives its own law.

One government moulds them all. They say "We serve." I take up the

blade of grass and at once feel He that made that grass made the light of

day, the dew of the morning, the beast that feeds upon it. One law

pervades them all. I take up the corn. He that made that made the sun

that ripens it and the soil that fattens it, and my blood that is my

life. Everywhere is one mind, one plan, one hand, one sceptre, and all

nature says "I serve, I serve. There is a force external to myself. I

am measured. I move by rule." "I revolve," says every wheel in the

heaven, "I roll round by regular law." "Measure" always means

"beginning." That which is measured must have begun. Beginning always

suggests the possibility of end. That which once was not hereafter may

not be. Nature fails to fill the mind of man in any one of the three

directions--the past, the future, the outward and the infinite. It

cannot fill up this thought of ours that claims an eternity before, an

eternity coming, an infinity on every side; and we feel nature is like

ourselves--a servant, a creature, a machine, an organ, and every part of

it proclaims a mind that lived before it.

Then will all things fail? all decay? No--"Thy years shall not fail."

We turn to Him that made the law whereby the blade of grass grows, that

whereby the sun statedly comes to it, that whereby the animal feeds upon

it, that whereby the man lives upon the animal, and that whereby the

human mind reigns over the animal, cultivates the grass and makes use of

the light. We come to that great Being whom all these things indicate

and proclaim. In Him we find no external law or force compelling Him.

At his footstool all say "We serve," and to all He says either "Be" or

"Do" or "Do not." We find in Him no internal decay. Years come, ages

come, worlds arise and worlds pass away, but "Thou art the same"--the

same in strength, the same in youth, the same in beauty, the same in

glory, the same in wisdom. Never old, only "ancient of days." "Over

all, God blessed for ever. Amen."

The years of his divine existence shall never fail, the years of his

redeeming reign shall never fail. As I said, this Scripture is quoted

from the hundred and second Psalm. If you turn to it you will find in it

a contrast between man's perishing life and the eternal lifetime of the

Lord; and especially the glorious lifetime of his Messiah and Messiah's

kingdom. "My days are like a shadow that declineth, I am withered like

grass." The Bible makes everything preach--it makes the sparrow preach

and the bush preach, and the grass and the lily. It makes even the very

shadows preach--"My days are like a shadow that declineth." Perhaps

sometime in the morning you have stood and seen the great tree lying on

the east of the hill, throwing its shadow broad and thick over the

hill-side as if it really was a substance. But as the sun went up in the

sky that shadow gradually shrank down until it totally disappeared under

the leaves of the tree. My days are like that shadow--perhaps not like

that only. You may have seen in the very bright moonlight shadows lying

across the street till they looked solid as if they were something, so

much so that the young colt started from them. But a cloud passed over

the moon and where was the shadow? My days are like that. "But thou, O

Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations."

The remembrance of man is calling to mind those who are no more; the

remembrance of God is calling to mind Him that is unseen. "Thy

remembrance shall endure unto all generations. Thou shalt arise and have

mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come.

For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust

thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the

kings of the earth thy glory." Not only will his days endure but his

kingdom will endure; not only will it endure but it will go forward with

a perpetual progress. "Thou shall arise and have mercy upon Zion." The

Lord is building a city in the world, a city that hath foundations, a

city that is compacted together, a city that has its families and houses

and companies, its solemnities and social joys; a city that is all one

brotherhood though composed of every nation and kindred and people. The

Lord will arise in his strength to build this city and one of the signs

for his time to favour her is when her children take pleasure in her

stones and favour the dust thereof. We have that sign in our day. God's

children are taking pleasure in the stones of Zion and favouring the dust

thereof. Let us then, looking at the sign, lift up our eye for the

fulfilment of the promise, "When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall

appear in his glory." We are trying to build Zion and the Lord is

pleased to see it; but let us call upon Him--"Appear in thy glory! Do

thou come and build! Give us the living stones, bring them to us by thy

power out of the rocks, out of the heights and depths we cannot reach

unto wilt thou not bring living stones to thy temple?" Call and He will

come and He will build, and "the heathen shall fear the name of the

Lord."

You will say, "They have not heard it yet"--but they shall. You say many

that have heard it do not fear it, but they shall, they shall fear the

name of the Lord--"and all the kings of the earth thy glory." The kings

fear his glory! They think of ancestral glory, courtly glory, military

glory, political glory; they do not think about Christ and his glory.

But they shall, they shall fear his glory. The proudest kings in the

earth shall feel that the glory of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is to them

much as the sun is to that shadow I have spoken of upon the hill. Their

glory must pale and pass away. It is but a little time ago, only

nineteen centuries ago, since Christ had no kingdom in the earth, no

follower, no temple, no power. Now is there a monarch in the world will

come out and say, "I shall sweep the name, the law, the love, the power

of Christ out of the earth?" No, of all powers now acknowledged there is

none so deep, wide and mighty.

Every day adds to that power; every year opens to it new spheres, new

languages, new adherents, and on will it go and on till the whole earth

is subdued under the power of the Lord and his Christ. What is the

instrument of its progress? "He will regard the prayer of the destitute

and not despise their prayer." Not despise prayer! Why, do not the wise

men of the world despise prayer? Do not many talkers tell us that prayer

is a thing not to be looked upon as a force in the light of elevated

reason? You may despise it if you please and try to rear a kingdom over

human souls on a system that does. God will not despise it, Christ will

not despise it. There is a kingdom to be invoked by prayer, with its

throne and its crown and its sceptre. All the powers of that kingdom are

moved with the cry of a destitute heart. It is so, and you cannot alter

it. "This shall be written for the generation to come," how you go and

write down that prayer is of no effect, and we will write "He will not

despise their prayer," and let the "generation to come" judge. Your

predecessors, eighteen hundred years ago, wrote what you say--ours wrote

these words, and see the kingdom of Christ to-day! "This shall be

written for the generation to come: and the people." What people "shall

praise the Lord?" The people that are in Jerusalem? No. In Rome? in

Athens? No. What people? The people that are not anywhere; the people

that are neither in heaven nor in earth; "the people that shall be

created." "That shall be created"--existences now not existing, beings

now not being, offspring of God and members of the family of immortals

not yet born--they shall praise the Lord. Coming up out of the dark of

that great future they shall rise to obey the King we worship and to

praise the Saviour we love. "For He hath looked down from the height of

his sanctuary: from heaven did the Lord behold the earth." Ay, from that

holy place, that sanctuary--from that high place, that heaven--He looked

to behold this earth, this vile place, this base place. Yet it was not

to curse it--He looked "to hear the groaning of the prisoner; and to

loose those that are appointed to death." Here in every corner of the

world you will see a man who is appointed to death, accused, guilty, a

lawbreaker, with witness heard and evidence taken and judgment

recorded--the sentence is against him. Oh, if we had an eye such as

looks from above how many might we see in this fair congregation who are

condemned to death. You know it; you are breakers of eternal law; just

judgment is against you; you are appointed to death, and unless you are

delivered from that condemnation die you shall, die by a public execution

before all worlds in the great day. But He comes to deliver them "that

are appointed to death"--to bring you pardon, to bring yon salvation, to

bring you mercy, to make you a child of God, to blot out all the sin that

you have committed. Christ died that you might be delivered; reigns that

you may be delivered, and this day He is speaking to thy heart that thou

mayest turn from thy sin, seek mercy and follow Him in the way of life.

So the Psalmist goes on ever anticipating the growth and stability of

this kingdom. "He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my

days." God does not make his Church and work to depend upon the length

of any man's days. "I said, O my God take me not away in the midst of my

days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid

the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure? yea, all of them shall wax old

like a garment; as a vesture shall thou change them, and they shall be

changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Ay,

and there is something else that has no end. The heavens shall perish,

the earth shall perish. God will endure. And will nothing else endure.

Yes, "The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall

be established before thee." The servants, the children of God, those

that are born again by the Spirit's grace, those that come to Christ, the

Messiah, and through Him recover, by adoption, the place in the family of

God that was lost by sin, they shall continue, they shall be established.

What! when the earth flees away? Yes, when the earth flees away. What!

when the heaven falls? Yes, when the heaven falls; they shall be

established with the same immortality as their Father in heaven. "Thy

years shall not fail." God will not fail; Christ will not fail; the Rock

of Ages will not fail; and all and every one that through Christ is in

God will never fail. The world will pass away, the word of God will not

pass away, and the child of God will not pass away.

Take then this word to thy heart and say "Thy years shall not fail." It

will give you a worthy fear. Man is always rightly or wrongly fearing

something. One is afraid of a man that has him in his power. He says,

"If I offended him I should lose my bread; it would be as much as my

living is worth; I must take care not to offend him;" and rather than

offend that man he will stain his conscience and offend his God. Come

back in twenty years and ask where that man is, and they will take you to

his grave, and that was what you were afraid of! Another fears this

bright, witty, active young man, whose word either cuts or flatters with

amazing power. He feels as if he could not face him; as if he could not

bear that he should look him in the face and call him a saint or tell him

he had been praying to God or been commending his soul for mercy to

Christ. If he said these things to him it would actually appear as if it

was something against him, something he ought to be ashamed of! Come

back in twenty years and enquire for him--perhaps you will find him in a

mad-house, perhaps in a gambling-house, perhaps in chains among convicts.

Perhaps you will find a broken-hearted mother in black, wishing that he

had never been born, and that is what you are afraid of! Another is

afraid of the fashion. Every one does it, and if he did not do it he

would be remarked. Every one says there is no harm in it, and if he

scrupled they would make fun of him, and on this account he will do a

thing that he knows ought not to be done. Come back in two generations

and enquire from the grandchildren of these people about this fashion and

you will find they are all laughing at the folly of their grandfathers

and grandmothers. And that is what you are afraid of! Set the Lord

alway before you. Say, "Thy years shall not fail. Thou art worthy to be

feared. I will fear thee. Thou hast power--power over my breath, over

my body, over my day, over my night--power to destroy both body and soul

in hell; power to kill, power to make alive; power to condemn, power to

save; power to cast me down, power to lift me up to heaven--I will fear

thee, O God in Christ, and be thou my only fear."

Set the Lord alway before you and there you will find a sure refuge.

Nature is changing and decaying, and we are changed faster than nature.

We are all passengers in a ship that is floating in an ocean and has fire

in her hold. This air around us has an ocean in it, an ocean of real

water, and did God will it a little change in the weight of the air would

bring a universal deluge. This earth has fire in it, stores of fire, and

did God will a very little change in the chemistry of the air it would be

a universal blaze. We are passengers, I say, in a ship sailing in an

ocean with fire in the hold, and we know that the fire is to break out

and that the moment will come when the ship will be burnt up. You and I

are pacing this deck with the fire beneath, and the day, the hour, the

moment, that the signal will be given no man living can tell. Are we

prepared to meet our God? Can we look forth from this frail world unto

that infinite bosom of eternal rest and say, "Thou art mine and I am

thine to all eternity?" You may look to other refuges but they are not

secure, to other coverts but they are not safe. Here is the Rock of Ages

and that rock is cleft for you. God manifest in the flesh. Behold

Christ crucified and flee to Him, flee for refuge, flee to-day; once in

Christ you will know that you are safe. Let the storm come, let the

winds blow, let the floods beat, let the fires break out, safe! safe!

safe! Nothing can move Him and nothing can touch thee. Thou shalt

"dwell under the shadow of the Most High."

Set the Lord alway before thee and you will have an unfailing stay, an

unfailing resource. Many things you may think will not fail. Here is

the old man, and his friends tell him he does not fail, and how he likes

to hear it! "Thy years do not weigh thee down." He goes on and it seems

as if to him the years come as the snow falls on the mountains, not to

enfeeble but to embellish. He does not fail. Ay, but he will fail and

be bowed down to the dust. And the wiry woman that has gone through

enough to kill many and yet hath more spirit and energy than the young.

Ay, she shall fail too; you will see her smitten and trodden under the

grass. "Well I know I must fail," one says, "I _am_ failing, but then

there is my boy, I shall never want some one to lean upon, I can trust

him." Ah! he may fail; you may stand by the grave where they are saying,

"Dust to dust," or you may with your hands over your eyes look upon a

sadder grave where his character lies corrupting. Another says, "Well, I

know I am failing, but there is my daughter so good and sweet and true--I

shall never want a comforter for my old age." Ah, you do not know, she

may fail, you may have to weep over her coffin or to blush over her

faults. And another says, "Well, I have never depended upon anything but

my own honest industry. I have something to rely upon. Mine is not

speculation, it is good steady business--I can trust it." Can you? can

you? God may permit you by one mistake to undo the doing of a life.

"But I am not depending upon the chances of business--my position is

secure--settled property. I shall not fail." Are you sure? You know

not the ways by which earthly things can make themselves wings and flee

away; or if they do not flee you may depart from them. Another says,

"Well, I have never trusted to anything but my right hand and I shall not

want--wherever I go I can take care of myself." Ay, but suppose the

right hand should fail? As long as the strong arm and the strong will

work together it is well, but suppose a day should come when an invisible

knife should pass between the arm and the will: and the will said,

"Stretch forth!" but the arm hung idle by the side. It may fail. "Well,

but my heart never fails me; whatever goes wrong I can make the best of

it." But suppose your heart should fail and that you became one of those

to whom the grasshopper was a burden, one that made the worst of

everything, that could look no difficulty in the face. Your heart may

fail, your flesh may fail, your money may fail, your employ may fail,

your friends may fail, everything upon earth may fail. If you have

Christ for your friend you will never fail, if you have God for your

Father you have a shelter, a home, a comfort that will never fail. If

you have not you have nothing that you can count upon. Then come this

day, come and say to all the shadows, "I trample over you, I clasp the

substance. Holy God, my Eternal Father, let me be reconciled to thee!

Be thou my God! Make me thy child! Give me a part and a lot in the

family of the holy! For the sake of Jesus, who is the same yesterday,

to-day, and for ever, write my name in thy book of life and cover me from

the storm that is coming, so that amid the change of life and the ruin of

death, the awe of the judgment-day, my spirit may abide under an

everlasting shelter! may look forward to the eternity that is to be and

say to it, 'Welcome--open all thy scenes--uncover thy deepest

secrets--world of the unknown, bring out all that thou hast hidden, for

all things are mine, for I am Christ's, and Christ is God's.'" Amen and

Amen.

GOD'S CONTROVERSY WITH MAN.

REV. CHARLES PREST.

"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do

this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."--AMOS iv. 12.

This chapter refers to the condition of Israel at the time of this

prophecy, and to the expostulation and threatened procedure of God

concerning the nation. God's people had revolted from Him; they had sunk

into idolatry; they had been often reproved, but had hardened their

necks, and therefore the Lord, after recapitulating the calamities which

had befallen them, and which all came in the way of fatherly

chastisements for their recovery to righteousness, and indicating that

his anger was not turned away, says, "and because I will do this unto

thee"--and because having done this repentance does not appear, then

prepare to meet me. That is, meet me in battle. If you will not submit,

then let the battle be fought; if you will not bow down to these kind

modes of discipline--kindly intentioned, however terrible in execution,

then prepare to meet me. This expostulation proceeds upon a very

intelligible principle--a principle, however, which we sometimes sadly

forget, and which we are too much in the habit of neglecting--on the

principle that man is an accountable creature; and secondly, that God

will call him to account for his conduct.

God has a controversy with man, with us--a controversy with us because of

our sin, our sin being an outrage against the divine love; a controversy

with us because He is right and we are wrong; because He designs the

welfare of all, and the sin that we love is productive of universal

destruction; a controversy with sinners that can only be terminated in

one of two ways--a controversy with every unconverted person here to-day.

Do not deceive yourselves: if you are strangers to the life of God, you

are in opposition to Him, and with you as sinners there is a controversy

only to be terminated--first, by your submission, your repentance--and,

thank God, He has prepared a perfect and suitable method for our

submission, and for our repentance. If He has a controversy with us, He

wills it to be terminated in such a mode as shall secure the original

purpose of his great love, which our sin has outraged. Christ has

appeared in our behalf, and for this purpose has offered a full, perfect,

and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for our sins. For

this purpose the Divine Spirit waits in all our assemblies, and now in

this place, that any of you who are now enemies to Him by wicked works,

being pricked in your hearts on account of your sins, and groaning under

your condemnation, may fly for refuge to the hope set before you in

Christ Jesus our Lord. So God would have this controversy terminated.

So He invites you in his great mercy to terminate it. And for this

purpose we are ministers of reconciliation, and "we pray you in Christ's

stead, be ye reconciled to God."

There is but one other way of terminating this controversy, and that is

by our destruction. If we will abide in our controversy, if we will wage

the battle to the end, this destruction must ensue, here is no method

else--no escape any where between the one extreme and the other; it is

submission and life, it is battle and death--death eternal. O that death

eternal! What is it? Not the annihilation of your souls. What is the

death of a soul? The loss of the life of God--the loss of communion with

God. The soul is made for such a communion: this is its true life; it

has no satisfaction apart from this enjoyment. There cannot be communion

without love; that is the soul of communion; and if you renounce the

reign of love, and come under the dominion of enmity, you cut yourselves

off from the life of God, you die, and must endure the bitter pains of

eternal death. I pray God that you may terminate this controversy, and

thank God that you may do so, by the submission of your hearts to his

merciful provision of salvation, that so you may live in hallowed

Christian blessedness here, and inherit perfect fellowship and communion

with God hereafter.

We should humble ourselves in the presence of that great calamity which

has fallen upon our flocks and upon our herds. I think it is well in

times of public calamity that public attention should be called to these

things; and our attention has been called thereto--not, it is true, by

the governing authorities of the country. No matter for that. It is

right that we should listen to the admonition that we have received in

our own denomination, and do all we can rightly to humble ourselves, and

above all, earnestly to pray to God that He would take away the evil from

us, and that, in taking away the evil, He would render us the less liable

to promote the dire necessity of future visitation. Let me then call

your attention to some general principles connected with God's dealings

with the nations.

There is a national as well as an individual providence. In the ancient

government of God over the nations of the earth, in his dealings with his

own people and with the heathen peoples about them, his hand was clearly

discerned on many occasions, and his arm sometimes made bare. There were

the predictions of certain events to come, and there was the recognised

accomplishment of those predictions sometime afterwards. Then, again,

you find miraculous interpositions of correction, of punishment, or of

deliverance. If you turn your attention to the history of God's Church,

you find all these things manifest; you find Israel in Egypt; then the

command that they should be allowed to pass away from their bondage; you

find Egypt resisting the command, and God sent among the people of Egypt

signs and wonders, and plagues by the hand of Moses, but they submitted

not. He called them to obedience, but they rebelled. By and bye, He

slew their firstborn, the chief of all their strength, and then the

people came out with silver and with gold. Nations are not simply

chastised in this world, they are also punished. Every one of us shall

give an account of himself to God at the last great day, and strictly

speaking, the punishment of separate individuals will not begin in this

life; but nations cannot be judged collectively hereafter; they are dealt

with here; and God's dealings with the nations stand out in his palpable

acts with these Egyptians. They saw the hand of God for a time, but they

fell back into their ancient rebellion and pursued the Israelites to the

Red Sea, and God made that sea a way for his ransomed and destroyed the

pursuing host. Go through the entire history of God's ancient people.

You find the Assyrians round about Jerusalem, you see the angel of God

going forth, and that mighty host is destroyed. Go through all the

dealings of God with heathen nations, and you find these physical

manifestations of God's power. In our day there are no such

manifestations as these. In modern times the events of the divine

government are not so authoritatively predicted, and the exceedingly

foolish attempts of some people to interpret prophecy and to apply it

arbitrarily to passing events cannot be too severely condemned. They

tend greatly to prejudice the proper interpretation of Scriptural

prophecy before the world, and deserve severe reprehension, and should be

altogether discountenanced by all men of sound mind. In our day we have

not these authoritative predictions of events. But amid all this there

is a tendency to ignore the action of God in the government of the world

altogether. Instead of recognising his presence or acknowledging his

power, the varied events--political, social, and otherwise--events like

the one to which I have just referred, affecting the nation, are denied

their true character; and the view that I have ventured to place before

you in many places would be treated with ridicule. Men say, when they

look at political events, that they are to be traced to the conclusions

of well-directed political economy, or to the failure of the application

of sound principles of government. I know very well that if the

pestilence comes there are men who trace it to no higher than physical

causes. I know very well that if great calamities happen in storm or

tempest the physical cause is alone recognised. And with reference to

the scourge of our cattle clever men look, as they ought, after the

physical causes. They look, as I think they are bound, to the

development of the evil influences leading to such a result. But if men

now-a-days are Christian enough to recognise God in the parliament of

this country there is no great response, unless it be a response of

ill-concealed scorn; and even among people who profess more of

Christianity there is a danger of leaving the stern, enlightened, and

faithful recognition of God which distinguished our fathers, and of

looking, in some fancied superiority of our intellect--which is but a

fancy; for there were wise men before us--for explanation in something,

in anything oft-times, rather than the recognition of God's power.

Remember this, however, brethren, that the principles of God's government

in our day are the same which have inhered in that government in all

ages--that, however human circumstances may differ, however the nations

of this world may alter, however the powers of men may vary time after

time, God's government is an immutable thing; it changes not. The

perfect idea of a human government is this--I do not say it is

realised--to have certain fixed principles that are to abide, and then in

the application of those principles to find an elasticity which shall

meet every conceivable alteration of circumstances about us. That is the

idea of a perfect human government; but human governments do not attain

to it. The government of God, however, is perfect. The great principle

is love--"God is love;" its great end, the welfare of man; the purpose of

that government, the spread of Christianity for the welfare of mankind.

There is no expediency in this government, as men understand it. The

governments of this world are too much founded upon expediency--the

government of this country for the last sixty or seventy years lamentably

founded upon it. There was a time when there was less of it here, but

the disciples of expediency increase, and it is now rather "What is

convenient?" than "What is right?" There is an expediency taught in the

Bible, but it is nothing more than the best way of doing the right thing.

It never truckles. The government of God knows nothing of our human

expedients; it knows a great deal of Divine arrangements, and God as

truly governs as though in his government of the nations He should work

signs and wonders and divers miracles daily.

God has spoken in the history of our own country. Look at some of the

startling events of the last two hundred years. You look at the act of

our noble, intelligent, never-to-be-sufficiently-admired, firm old

English ancestors, in driving James the Second from his throne, and

working out the glorious Revolution of 1688. Well, if you look at all

this politically, you speak of their wisdom, their fortitude, and their

indomitable spirit; you speak too of storm and tempest all working in

their favour. Aye, aye, but the hand of God was there, as much in

sending away that unworthy King as God's hand was in sending

Nebuchadnezzar to feed among the oxen. God's hand may not appear in our

modern times as in former days, but faith sees that hand in the common

affairs of mankind. But because we do not see the operation, because the

operation is not palpable to men's senses, the agency of God is

forgotten. Depend upon it, it is a great mistake to imagine that if we

could see, now and then, some great miracle wrought, we should get into

the habit of recognising the power and wisdom of God. The Israelites

were fed in the desert by miracle, and rebelled against God whilst they

ate the food miraculously given to them. The wonder--the perfection of

the Divine operation is this, that without disturbing in our little

individual history any of the common affairs which arise in every-day

life, without working any miracle at all, and whilst to the eyes of men

all things continue as they were from the beginning, whilst there is

nothing observable in the method, He works all things together for the

good of them that love Him, combining opposing forces and blending

together the elements of life and of death in one grand atmosphere of

benediction for the welfare of the righteous, and all this without

disturbing the ordinary course of cause and effect. The power of God

impresses itself not merely through the lower links of the chain of

providence--cause and effect, but upon the higher part of that chain

which sends down its influence, its intelligence, its all-wise

benevolence, to work out the welfare of those that are the objects of his

love.

So it is with nations. You will see public events rising up in

connection with ordinary causes, but we ought to acknowledge the great

First-cause. The principles of divine government which operated in the

old time are now as surely in operation as they were then. They are not

antiquated: they are not at all supplanted; they operate in the same way,

to the same ends; they operate to national and personal benefit, to

national and personal reproof, or, in the neglect of such admonition, to

national and personal punishment, showing us that God's government is now

the government which it was in the ancient days, and that though we see

no miracles in our day God is as much in the midst of unthinking

multitudes as when men were startled by the visible interposition of his

Almighty power.

Let us look, then, at the state of things about us now. Is there not

sufficient cause in this land to lead us to humble ourselves, to improve

the admonition of our God; that we should prepare to meet Him, in the

only way in which we can meet Him to our profit, by our personal

submission to a greater extent; and if we love our country, that we

should put ourselves into a position to bring the nation out of any state

of rebellion against God, to lead it back to a more perfect

reconciliation with Him? What evils have we now to deplore? Why, a

great number. It is a blessed land after all; and there is more of

Christianity found in it than in any other in the world. There is

doubtless more of the direct influence of Christianity in our population

than you will find elsewhere, and certainly more of the indirect

influence upon the constitution of the nation, upon our legislation, upon

our national--aye, and upon our domestic habits. There is a large amount

of the indirect influence of Christianity in our midst, for which we have

cause to be thankful. But then, on the other hand, how much is there of

evil? There is great evil in our midst. There is first, what really our

fathers had not so much to do with--there is the presence and power of a

subtle, of a most ably-wrought and powerfully-patronised Popery, about

which we have been asleep for too long a time, Popery, which is inimical

to the welfare of any nation, and inconsistent with the political

happiness, prosperity and security of any people. You have not far to go

for the proof of this. You have only to go to the present miserable

condition of Ireland to prove it. It is all very well for disclaimers to

arise from the men who created the disloyal element of this mischief, but

they must esteem the Protestants of this country more credulous than I

hope they will prove if they expect them to believe their present

protestations. What else have you? You have the presence of this Popery

also where Protestantism alone ought to be known. You have it

dishonestly intruded into the temples of Christian truth; and you have

the pernicious nonsense of miserable and disgraceful antics obtruded into

what men call divine worship, utterly beneath the dignity of sensible

men. You have another thing. You have infidelity, and in the pulpit

too--the pulpit in high places--infidelity in its worst form. You have

all this, and no power, and very little inclination exists to correct it.

You have all this, and multitudes love to have it so. That is one form

of evil, leading to many other forms, and causing all thoughtful men to

deplore the condition of churches cursed with a schism like this, with a

false doctrine and heresy so utterly opposed to the truth and to the

salvation of men. Well, then, look, at the profanity of the people

around us. Look at the ungodliness of decent people. I am not here

to-day to call your attention simply, as people sometimes do, to the

lowest classes of society. They are bad enough. They are a festering

mass at the foundation of all the greatness of the nation; they are a

mass which, if not corrected in their tendencies, may at any time be

quickened into an activity that will utterly wreck the entire

superstructure of all that as Christians and as Englishmen we hold dear.

But higher up, where there is no profaneness or criminality, or gross and

disgusting visible intemperance, what other evils are there? There is

decency, but there is an absence of the recognition of God. God is not

in men's thoughts. And there is a fearful and fatal indifference as to

the claims of religion that has come over the nations. Multitudes

neglect public worship. I apprehend the least evidence that anybody can

give of religious impression, or of recognition of the claims of

religion, is that they should attend the public worship of Almighty God.

You find, however, hundreds of thousands in this nation who never attend

divine service. If our churches and chapels in London were to be

attended next Sunday by the usual number of persons, and those besides

who ought to attend were disposed to try to gain admission at any one

time during the day, we have not half churches and chapels enough to hold

them; whilst, as it is, the room provided is not occupied. This

indifference is a fearful thing. Paul yearned over his countrymen, but

in some respects our countrymen are worse than Paul's. "I could wish,"

said that glorious, patriotic man--that grand old man, that most blessed

and chief of all the Apostles, with heaven in his view, his career

well-nigh ended, his work done, and Churches rising up around him of

which he was the father--not churches built upon other men's

foundations--"I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren,

my kinsmen according to the flesh." Yet "I bear them record, that they

have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." In England, at this

day, there are multitudes of whom it may be said, "God is not in all

their thoughts." And the heathenism spread about us is as bad in its

developments as in any other part of the world, and more aggravated in

its character because of its immediate proximity with the light and truth

of our blessed Christianity. There is in this land, too, an absorbing of

men in worldliness: this, perhaps, comes nearer to us. In my time I have

seen worldliness not only enthralling obviously and professedly worldly

men. I have seen worldliness come into the Church--aye, among

Methodists. How many young men have I seen, earnest, zealous, devoted,

doing just that work for God which must be done by young men if the

population of this land is to be won to Christ--they enter into

business-life, by-and-bye God prospers their industry, and they begin to

thrive in the world; and what then? Oh, then this fervour abates--they

get immersed in earthly things. We lose their activities in the Church;

the ungodly part of the world lose the influence of a blessed example and

of their Christian teaching. They are too busy to attend to the service

of God at all on the week days, they say to their ministers: "We will

find the money if you will send men to do the work among these poor

people." Find money to do it! So they ought: but do they think they

place the Church under obligation by doing that? Not a whit. They ought

to be thankful to the Church, and to the God of the Church, that He will

have their money, that God permits them gratefully to recognise in this

way their stewardship; but I say to every such person, if you think you

can purchase exemption from personal devotion to God, and from such

devotion as shall lead you to spread the truth by your personal labour,

to the utmost extent of your ability, you are greatly mistaken. We can

have no such compositions of God's claim; you must not dream of them.

There is a feebleness, therefore, of the Church; oft-times arising from

this cause, a feebleness we must seek to cure, as it only can be cured,

by an increase of our own personal godliness.

But how do we stand just now? God has sometimes admonished this nation

for its ungodliness. I do not speak of the nation now as profane or

criminal. Take the best view of it. And I remember that a great

theologian has said, the true view of man's depravity is not that every

man is profane or intemperate or mischievous--the great proof of the

universal depravity of man is found in man's ungodliness--in his not

recognising the claims of God, and not bowing to his love. We have had

admonition after admonition, within our own lives, most of us. Not long

since God sent a pestilence into our midst--on two remarkable occasions.

Well do I remember the state of the people where I was labouring in one

of the large towns of this country, with between three and four hundred

deaths, from cholera, occurring every week. The people were alarmed.

There was a national day of humiliation and prayer; our places of worship

were crowded. The people were alarmed, but they were not permanently

impressed. God heard prayer; yes, he delights to hear prayer. God

answered it; he delights to answer it. The evil passed away; the concern

passed with it; and I shall never forget the contrast between the

congregations on the day of humiliation, and when they were summoned to

thank God for the removal of the scourge. "Were there not ten cleansed?

but where are the nine?"

It is only four years ago that another check came upon the nation--that

one of our great branches of national industry became suddenly paralysed;

and what mercy was there in that! There was the good hand of God in the

administration of that chastisement, in the conduct of the people under

such calamities, and in the absence of mischievous, designing men from

among them. I have known the time when that population would have been

inflamed by a calamity of far less consequence to acts of the greatest

violence. God's hand was there. He chastised the nation; but He guided

the chastisement. And now again, another evil has come upon us--a

greater evil, perhaps, than people imagined at first--this plague among

our herds. There will be great loss to individuals, and no doubt there

will be great loss to all; for it is impossible for so much wealth or

money's worth to be destroyed in any nation without all the people in the

nation feeling it more or less. I think it right, therefore, that we

have been called to recognise the hand of God therein--to look through

all external causes to his hand. It is a very dangerous thing, a thing I

have never done in my life, and never would do, to talk about the

providence of God in its punitive power, to talk about retribution in the

application of God's providence in individual cases. It is very unwise

to do that, and sometimes it may be most uncharitable. It is different,

however, in God's dealings with a nation. We are admonished, or

punished, by a great national calamity that has stirred all classes of

men each in their own way, and has raised all their activities in order

to see if evils of this kind may not be checked in their operation. This

evil is present with us. And then, as to other evils that may arise. If

you look abroad into the world, to the relations of this country to other

nations, you have peace just now; but he would be a bold man who should

predict the continuation of this peace for any length of time. No, your

statesmen cannot keep the peace of nations; and the folly of our boasting

about the peace-working power of our commercial relations has already be

seen. We cannot give peace to the world. Who can tell how soon the

calamity of war may afflict this country? Not I trust on its shores; but

what is this land that it has any right to expect a perpetual immunity

from the horrors of war in her midst? Do not say these things will pass

away. Do not say these things are remote. They may quickly overtake us,

and we should be careful that we do not provoke our God to hasten any of

his judgments or to aggravate present ones. If you are delivered from

calamity--if this great national calamity, for such it is, has not

touched you, or at least not so touched you as to inconvenience you at

all, remember to give sympathy to those that are suffering from it; and

let thankfulness for your present mercies manifest itself in that godly

amendment of life which shall prove your best contribution to the future

safety and the prosperity of the nation. If we neglect this we place

ourselves in opposition to God's government, and are in danger, by our

opposition, of being told to prepare to meet God in conflict. Individual

sinners do so who refuse repentance; nations do so that will not submit

to God. You that are living without God, pray what prospect have you,

what prospect of victory? The potsherd of the earth may strive with the

potsherd, but woe to the man that strives with his Maker. The God whom

you are called upon to meet is the "God that formeth the mountains, that

createth the wind, that declareth unto man what is his thought, that

maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the

earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name."

Let the ungodliness of this land increase--and it will increase if we

neglect the manifestation of godliness in opposition to it--and what

then? There will be the culmination of national sin, and there will be

the enactments of Parliament against the law of God, as on a former

memorable occasion in France; let it come to that, and let a crisis

arise; and though your statesmen should be the most sagacious, and have

all the ability which has ever distinguished the foremost men of the

Government of this land; let your Parliament be intelligent and

patriotic; let your sons be as brave on flood or field as their fathers;

let your commerce be ever so flourishing, your arts ever so perfect, your

literature ever so exalted--none of these things would save the

nation--none of these things would be an effectual shield against

calamity; and upon the wreck of this grand old realm--wrecked by its

ungodliness, made rotten at its base by sin--upon the wreck of this

nation which, had it been godly, would have borne the shock of all the

earth, and dashed it back like foam--on the wreck of Britain shall be

written, "The nation, the kingdom, that will not serve thee shall

perish." That inscription has been often written upon empires as

magnificent, as powerful, and as illustrious as this.

What, then, is our duty? What have we to do with this? We who are

gathered together in this chapel may say, can we arrest the course of the

nation? Can we turn back the floods of ungodliness? Can we go out and

produce an influence that may avert these calamities? I do not say that

you alone can do this; but I do say, that you are bound to contribute

your utmost to the check of these evils, with as perfect a heart, and

with as earnest a purpose, and as free a will, as though your hand could

dash back the evil and rescue the nation from its danger.

Our immediate duty is repentance. That is the duty of the nation. But

the word nation is a comprehensive one; we lose ourselves in it. We may

do as we are in danger of doing with the word Church, lose sight of our

own individual responsibility in confused ideas of what the Church

collectively is to do. God cannot yield in this conflict; his

righteousness forbids this. The nation must yield and become obedient,

or the result indicated must follow. If then the nation is to repent,

where is that repentance to begin? Why in this place to-day, so far as

we are concerned. In whose hearts must this repentance commence? Why in

the hearts of every one of you unconverted persons, that are rather

contributing to the ungodliness of the country than to the increase of

its spiritual power. You may not be drunkards, you may not be

profligate; but if you are living without the recognition of God's love

and the enjoyment of his favour, you are ungodly; and your first duty is

to repent. There is no salvation without this repentance, let some

modern preachers say what they will. The Master of all preachers sent

the Apostles forth, and they preached everywhere that men should repent.

There is a fashionable preaching, I am told, that has no repentance in

it. So much the worse for the people that listen to such error. There

is no merit in repentance; the only meritorious cause of your salvation

is the blood-shedding and the present and perfect atonement of Christ.

But "the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." The old

Puritans were right who said, that the soundest conversions were those

with which the law had most to do. Mount Sinai exhibited proofs of God's

love, and Christ, who died for us on Calvary, is the author and enforcer

of the whole law. There must be the bowing down of your souls to the

claims of the law, the struggle for amendment, the renunciation of sin,

the recognition of your own hopelessness, and the cry, "What must I do to

be saved?" "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then

comes Christ, and peace, and joy; a participation in the divine nature;

and a power to contribute practically to the repentance of the nation.

This is your duty.

You Christian people, too, are called upon to repent. Depend upon it as

we go through life an act of repentance, once for all, will not do: we

shall need repentance daily. When a man is admitted to the favour of God

it is that his mouth should be stopped, it is that he should entertain

penitential feeling as long as he lives--not the penitence of guilt, but

the penitence of gratitude. The recollection, I am a sinner, will

inspire and maintain such penitence; and a blessed end that man will

make, who in the full meaning of the words, pours out the prayer at the

last, "God be merciful to me a sinner." We need repentance--we all need

it. Let us turn our attention to ourselves, and ascertain how much we

have contributed to the existing evils of the nation. How much have we

contributed to the present state of things which in the judgment of sober

Christian concern may be held to have provoked the anger of God? We may

have contributed to these evils, and I dare say we have, in two ways:

first, by neglect of duty. There are sinners about you, you need not go

far to find them--perhaps there are some ungodly people in your own

houses. What have you ever done to make them godly? What effort have

you made, what kind of an example have you set them in your words, in

your tempers, in your spiritual aspirations? Now tell yourselves

honestly. You have been living with them up to this day, living with

them during this day. What have you said to them? Do your conduct and

your words condemn their sin, and invite them to reconciliation with God?

What does conscience say to this? What does the recollection of the past

few hours say to this? There are wicked people about you: some of you

have leisure; what have you done for your ungodly neighbours? What poor

man's house have you visited? What wretched sinner have you talked to?

You have passed along the streets, and have seen sin abounding; have you

ever tried to check it? Have you ever thought it worth while to follow

some half dozen people deeply immersed in sin, and by patient, earnest,

godly admonitions, counsels, and entreaties, have you sought the

salvation of their souls? Have you done this? "Oh!" you busy men say,

"we have not time." I know better; you must not tell practical men that;

they know that all of us waste a great deal more time than we want for

such a purpose. It is not a question of time at all, but a question of

inclination. Have we done so? Are evils abating by our instrumentality?

Do not say, "I could do very little." Do what you can! "If I could move

a multitude I would do it." No, that will not do. You good women, are

you doing all the good you can in your families? Do you mothers give

yourselves to the right training of your children? Fathers, are you

practically anxious for the spiritual good of your families? Do you help

your wives to bring up a godly family, which shall prove a blessing to

the nation; and not such an one as Dr. Paley says, as shall turn out wild

beasts upon society. You have little ability; well, if you have not ten

talents, do not bury the one talent. Paul did one thing, and that was

the secret of all his greatness--he did _his_ duty. Do you do _yours_?

There was a simplicity of purpose about him, an earnestness of endeavour,

a thoroughness in the doing of it that made him what he was, the greatest

of all apostles and the greatest man that the Christian Church has known.

Take that simple rule, you young people; strive to spread the influence

of a godly example among all about you: do what you can, in a way

consistent with your position in life, and in a way consistent altogether

with modesty, humility, and a deep devotion to God, and you will not

labour in vain. We are guilty of sins of omission, and we need

repentance.

But how have we contributed to the evils of the nation by our activities?

Some of you were converted, perhaps, when you had lived to be twenty

years of age, some of you thirty or forty, some perhaps were older; what

kind of lives had you led before that time? How many of your former

companions did you injure by a godless example? perhaps by foolish words,

perhaps by ungodly actions. God has rescued you; where are they? What

has become of the seed you then planted in their minds? If God drew out

the roots of vice by his grace from your hearts, the influence of this

evil remains elsewhere. What mischief is often done by men prior to

their conversion in their families! When you see there is so much

wickedness in the land, then say, "What have I done to increase it?" And

I think we shall all find great need to repent; great need to set an

example of repentance to all about us.

The first thing, then, is this deep humiliation of heart that shall bring

us all to bow before God, and cause us to join in the prayer, "Enter not

into judgment with thy servants, O God, for in thy sight shall no man

living be justified." But, then, you Christian professors must bestir

yourselves. This repentance must not be a passing emotion, not a

temporary influence, however powerful; but there must be a correspondent

continued effort to promote it amongst your families and neighbours, and

to the utmost extent of your power in the world; engaging meanwhile in

earnest prayer; and then consecrating yourselves more fully to this work

under the influence of two things, a deep sense of personal

responsibility and of the constraint of divine love. Submit, then, to

this will of God. Know the rod, and Him that hath appointed it. If the

multitudes about you do not know it you know it. If God be not

recognised, let it be yours to recognise Him amid the surrounding

worldliness, and depend upon it your purity of heart shall increase, and

you will see God in all things, in all calamities, and in all joys. It

is a strange thing that nations and individuals see God more readily in

trouble than they do in their joys. Amid the immunities from ill which

Christian people often enjoy how little they think of God. Trouble

comes, calamity comes, and we owe the quickening of our religious

feelings, strangely enough, more to our fears than we to our gratitude.

And it will be well if we are so quickened by present calamity.

Thus let us prepare ourselves to promote that condition of feeling in the

nation which shall lead us to meet God not in conflict but in the way of

his judgments, to bow to his rule, to abate our ungodliness, and to

become as a nation wise and understanding.

One remark as to the popular interpretation of the text. You will have

to meet God speedily in your death. You should prepare to meet Him, for

you cannot resist; you cannot flee from Him. Let us prepare to meet Him

by embracing the mercy which He offers, receiving the love which He

communicates to us, and devoting the rest of our lives to his service and

glory. You are called upon, then, and I think for these reasons properly

called upon, to contribute to and to promote the humiliation of the

nation. Whatever other people do, humble yourselves before God. And let

not the impression be a temporary one, but in the future seek that

practical love which constitutes the repentance necessary to the nation,

and necessary to you that you may prompt the repentance and reformation

of those about you, and which can alone save the land of our fathers from

calamity and make her more fully what she ought to be, "a praise in the

earth." Amen!

THE PROPHETIC THEME.

REV. GERVASE SMITH.

"Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched

diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which

was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings

of Christ, and the glory that should follow."--1 PETER i. 10, 11.

There is a peculiar interest attaching to the writer of this epistle.

Although it was probably in old age, when a large experience of labour

and sorrow had chastened his spirit, and in prospect of martyrdom, that

he composed these chapters, they bear unmistakable proofs of his own

vigour of thought, and suggest many reminiscences of his remarkable life.

Whether you regard him as a man, a Christian, or an apostle, he presents

an illustrious subject for the student of these modern times. His

history puts before us many and serious defects; but there is much more

to approve and admire: and while a feeling or sorrow lingers over the

one, the other is so marked and prominent that it secures your sympathy,

and you are drawn towards the man with an ineffable affection. There is

a candour, and honesty, and generosity, and heroism, which gives to his

character a most healthy tone. The qualities of his mind and heart, when

sanctified by grace, become really noble; and if it were right, you would

like to forget his failings in presence of so much that is both manly and

good.

His two epistles are a precious legacy to the Church. The first is

addressed to the "scattered strangers:" but whether this expression refer

to Jews, or converted Gentiles, or both, or to the "dispersed" of the ten

tribes, there is no satisfactory evidence. We are in similar doubt as to

the place from which it was written. The _Church at Babylon_ is named in

the last chapter; but there was a Babylon in Egypt, and another in

Assyria, and Rome itself is thus figuratively designated.

The style of the apostle's writing is just what you would expect from the

man himself. Vehemence, majesty, and, at the same time, ease and

freedom, are manifest in every page.

The chief design of this epistle is to administer comfort to those

already suffering; and to prepare others for the affliction they were

about to endure. The first chapter adduces several considerations to

uphold their constancy. One is that they are _the chosen of God_; "Elect

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification

of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus

Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." Then, as the elect of

God, they had a _good hope of heaven_. "Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, hath

begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that

fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of

God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time."

A third consideration is, that though in the midst of trial, their

Saviour was with them, and the end of their faith was sure. "Whom having

not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye

rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory: receiving the end of

your faith, even the salvation of your souls." And, finally, they were

to remember that this subject of their salvation had been matter of

earnest enquiry among the prophets, whose labours are now made to

contribute to their comfort. "Of which salvation the prophets have

enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should

come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of

Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the

sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."

I.--THE STUDENT, AND

II.--HIS THEME.