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wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." And these doctrines, which the Son of God hath joined, let no man presume to put asunder.

Let me, then, exhort you, while you disclaim all merit of your own, and confess yourselves with real humility to be miserable sinners, agreeably to that declaration of the Apostle, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he hath saved us," still to show yourselves meet to receive the riches of God's goodness by living as the Gospel requires us to live" soberly, righteously, and godly." Be Christians, not only in name and in profession, but in deed and in truth. Conform yourselves to the precepts, and imitate the example, of Christ. Be punctual in the duties you more especially owe to God. Approach him in prayer through the mediation of his Son. Exercise yourselves in the study of his revealed will. Reverence his ordinances : despise not his Sabbaths. Seek to obtain from the Spirit illumination to your minds, and a right judgment in all things. Pray to him to warm your hearts, to elevate your devotions, to help your infirmities, to further your endeavours. Let the love and the gratitude you owe to God your Redeemer, make you zealous for his honour, which is despised by the ungodly and profane. Let it incite you to the desire of uniting yourselves more closely to him by participating of the sacrament of his body and of his blood.

And, while you endeavour to fill your hearts with the love of God and your Redeemer, let this love be manifested towards your fellow-creatures; for if any say, "I love God," and hate his brother, that man is a liar. Follow, then, peace with all men: think no evil of, speak no evil of, do no evil to, your neighbour. Let not strife or malice, unkindness or severity, sully the temper, and throw a shade over the lives of those who have received the Gospel of and while Christian charity influences your temper, let it shine forth also in deeds of mercy and compassion to those whose unhappy lot it is to struggle with poverty and distress.

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While, however, you forget not to display all those kind offices towards your brethren, which either Christian charity or Christian courtesy may dictate, be careful likewise to exercise a strict control over your own hearts, lest their ungoverned lusts should lead you into all manner of sin and impurity. Let not lasciviousness, drunkenness, or any riotous excess, be allowed to defile those bodies which have been consecrated as temples of the Holy Ghost. And, my brethren, let not your attention to the duties you owe to God, your neighbour, and yourselves, be postponed. Let not any article of your conduct that you feel to be offensive to God, injurious to your brethren, or destructive of your own soul's purity, remain uncondemned or unrenounced. On this, most frequent and earnest exhortations are especially necessary. We all-those at least who habitually partake of Christian ordinances-are aware of the great importance of "the one thing needful;" can all feel the force of the question, “What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" But we are all too apt, under the absorbing influence of present and worldly objects, to defer acting as our sober conviction would require us to act. My brethen, let us not, by thus trifling where life and death are at stake, put our souls in jeopardy. We are continually reminded, by a variety of events, that here we have no abiding place. We believe that the world passeth away, and the lusts

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thereof; and that the time is approaching when "all that are in their shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

My brethren, let these considerations excite us to "look diligently, lest any of us fail of the grace of God." The goodness of God calleth us continually t repentance: let us see that we refuse not him that calleth. God's Spirit will no always strive with us. If in obstinacy and indifference we reject his gracious invitations, death will at last overtake us; and we shall have to encounter the judgment of a God whose mercies we have exhausted, and whose wrath we have wilfully invoked. Now, therefore, my brethren, let us make haste to make our peace with God; for "now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.'

I should now, perhaps, conclude: but ere I do so, I hope I may be permitted to say, that I feel thankful to God for having enabled me to discharge, as I trust, not unprofitably, the duties of the Christian ministry. I hope the circumstances under which this discourse is delivered will be an excuse for what otherwise I should not have indulged in-personal reference to myself. To the many imperfections with which the discharge of my ministerial duties has been accompanied, I am not insensible: but I may venture to say, that I have not attempted wilfully to mislead, nor to impose any thing upon your consciences which Scripture authorizes not, nor to conceal any thing which it requires ; but have tried, in all godly sincerity, to set forth among you the doctrine of Christ crucified. And if, through such humble instrumentality, the seeds of Christian faith have been scattered amongst you, may He who alone can give the increase, cause them to bring forth fruit unto holiness, that so the end may be everlasting life. Nor-although it would ill become the sanctity of this place to utter from it the language of worldly compliment-should I do justice to my own feelings, were I not to express the satisfaction I have felt from the manner in which my ministry has been received amongst you; were I not to acknowledge that I have uniformly experienced respect and kindness from all with whom I have been brought into contact. Whatever, brethren, may be iny future lot, my connexion with this place will ever be amongst my most grateful recollections. That Almighty God may bless you with all temporal and spiritual blessings, is my earnest prayer. That you may not fail of those blessings, that you may enjoy the favour of God here and hereafter, and become partakers of the inheritance of the purchased possession; let me once more affectionately exhort you not to be content with the name of Christian, but to endeavour heartily to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let me exhort you, as you wish to secure to yourselves the peace and happiness of heaven, to follow peace with all men, and purify yourselves even as Christ the Lord is pure.

Finally, brethren-to cite the beautiful language of the Apostle-" Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think of these things."

"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified." And "may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom be glory for ever and ever." Amen.

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF THE WORD OF THE LORD IN THE DAY OF EVIL.

REV. W. JAY.

SURREY CHAPEL, MARCH 17, 1835.

"The word of the Lord was precious in those days."-1 SAMUEL, iii. 1.

"THERE never was," said the late Emperor Napoleon-"There never was a very excellent, nor a very extraordinary character, that did not owe much to his mother." This remark may be particularly exemplified with regard to religious distinctions. Many of you know the acknowledgments of Newton, and Cecil, and many others in our own times. We know nothing of the paternal relation of Timothy; but we read of the unfeigned faith which dwelt in his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice, and in him also. How David's memory lingers about this connexion: how tenderly he pleads it with his God! "I am the son of thine handmaid;""Save the son of thine handmaid."

And the same may be said of Hannah and Samuel. We consider Samuel as one of the finest characters recorded in all history. Here we have his birth, his dedication to God, his employment in the temple, and his call to the prophetical office for while he was yet but a child, dressed in a linen ephod, and ministering before the Lord, he received in the night a summons to deliver an awful message, involving the destruction of the whole house of Eli. You may peruse the details at your leisure; we have now only to notice the character of the period in which the vision came. The days were evil: profligacy had invaded the sanctuary of God; the priestly office was prostituted to the vilest purposes of sensuality, so that men despised and abhorred the offering of the Lord. " And the word of the Lord was precious in those days:" there was no "vision;" that is, there was no acknowledged prophet, accustomed to receive divine communications, to whom the people might statedly and publicly repair for instruction.

Let us take occasion, from the few words we have selected, to enlarge, this evening, upon three things. The word of the Lord: the preciousness of that word: and the season of that preciousness. Consider what we say; and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

First, THE WORD OF THE LORD. To this high honour the Bible professes to aspire: it claims to be nothing less than the word of the Lord; and we say at once on its behalf, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God;" and "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." I hope none of you, in this large assembly, have rendered it desirable or necessary to deny this truth. For this is the unhappy process with many; they first make the

Bible their enemy, and then they feel interested in opposing it. They hate it, because it doth not prophesy good concerning them, but evil. The late Mr. Wilberforce told me, that some years ago, when he was passing through Dorchester, during the confinement there of Carlile, he went to see him in prison, and endeavoured to engage him in a conversation upon the Scriptures; but he refused he said he had made up his mind, and did not wish it to be perplexed again: and, pointing to the Bible in the hands of his visitor, he said in an awful manner, How, Sir, can you suppose that I can like that book; for if it be true I am undone for ever." "No," said the divine philanthropist; is not the necessary consequence, and it need not be; that book excludes none from hope who will seek salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we may live together with him."

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Infidelity should be considered morally always, rather than intellectually; it is absurd to suppose that it results from a want of evidence. If there were only a probability, or even a possibility, of the Scripture being true, such are the awful consequences depending upon its rejection, and since no injury can arise from confiding in it, and much good must ensue from its adoption, reason itself requires that we should embrace it. But how many in number, and how convincing, are the proofs in its favour, compared with the objections alleged against it? We say objections; for infidelity only abounds with objections. Now it is the easiest thing in the world to object: specious objections may be advanced against a truth, however firmly established: and it is a very fine remark of Paley, that "we should never suffer what we know, to be disturbed by what we do not know." Why do not infidels undertake to answer Grotius, or Lardner, or Leslie, or Doddridge, or Paley, or Watson? Have they ever done this, have they ever attempted this, in one single instance?

I now go back to the beginning of the Gospel; and there we find two classes of persons-Jews and Gentiles-neither of which, forsooth, can find evidence enough to believe it. The Jews-O they could not believe that Jesus was Messiah; though they stood by and saw him open the eyes of the blind, and raise the dead, by a single word, and in a moment. But they could believe the relations of their Elders, and the stories of their Rabbies-the greatest impositions that ever yet were invented on human credulity. Then take the Greeks: "O," said they, "how absurd it is for persons to believe in, and adore as a God, one who suffered and died on the cross." At the very same time, you will observe, they acknowledged, they adored as gods, beings whose infamous lusts and passions they allowed; as if sinning was less incompatible with divinity than suffering. Whether, therefore, they refused to believe from a want of evidence, judge ye.

It is the same now; the evidence ventured upon by men as to their everlasting all, is such as they would be ashamed to act upon in the lowest concerns of life. The faith of the Christian! What does the Christian believe, compared with the man who believes that the Scriptures are a cunningly-devised fable? It is to him we plainly apply the exclamation, "O man, great is thy faith." We indeed believe difficulties; but he believes absurdities: we believe mysteries; but he swallows absolute impossibilities. O Christian, your faith does not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the word of God: yet the wisdom of man has always been on your side. Down to this very hour infidelity has not pro

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