common people, before and after service, pressea to read it over each other S shoulders, as the earth in a drought drinks in the rain. In a later, and an unhappy age, two thousand men, of whom the world was not worthy, suffered for conscience' sake, and were deprived of their livings. It is true that the Scriptures continued still in circulation, but they who preached them published them no longer, and the people could no longer hear from them the joyful sound, unless by stealth, and in concealment, and at night. "The word of the Lord. was precious in those days."

"The

I remember many years ago going over a considerable part of Wales, and I found that the word of God was so scarce in their own language, that it was no uncommon thing for several families to possess one Bible as the common joint property; and each family had the use and the reading of it for a week or a month successively; and I dare say they made a very good use of it. word of the Lord was precious in those days." Nothing, I think, can be more affecting, than the account Mr. Charles, of Bala, gives of the arrival-the first arrival of the Scriptures, from the British and Foreign Bible Society-the noblest institution that has been established since the apostolic days. He tells us, that when the people found that the vehicle laden with Bibles and Testaments, was drawing nigh, they went out in a body, withdrew the horses, and drew the vehicle themselves into the market-place, where the Bibles and Testaments were to be distributed. What a scene was this! I declare before God, I would rather have witnessed such a scene than a Roman triumph. We have seen heroes whose laurels have been drenched in blood; we have seen parliamentary hypocrites, in the kindness of their youth, and the love of their espousals, drawn along by human animals: but here was the Lamb of God; here was the Saviour of the world, drawn in triumph! We are reminded by this circumstance of something that happened at Jerusalem, when the multitude that went before, and the multitude that followed after, cried, Hosannah, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." So precious was the word of God, that in a few hours the whole carriage load of Bibles was disposed of. The mechanic took the book along with him into his shop, to dip into it at his leisure: the rustic took it to the field, to soften his toil, and sweeten his homely meeting the children (blessed be God for Sunday Schools, for they had been prepared by these for reading the Scriptures) the children read the book to their parents, and the aged man shook his hoary locks for joy.

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There may be something like these days of destitution existing in some instances now they may be produced by accidents, by diseases, by deafnesses, and so on. One is deaf, so that he cannot hear the word; another is blind, so that he cannot see. I remember, some years ago, a farmer in the country, a very pious man, he was advancing in years, and his eyes were growing dim: I often saw him reading the Scriptures at his window, and often sitting at his door, and he seemed to be musing as well as reading; he seemed to be committing it to memory: and when I asked him, I found this was the case: "O,” ✓ said he, “I am making provision for a dark day, that when I can no longer read, in the multitude of my thoughts I shall have comfort left to my soul."

My dear hearers, we all know best the value of a thing by the want of it. A wife may not be undervalued, and yet the importance attached to that relationship is not duly felt until the delight of our eyes is removed by a stroke,

and the body is no longer seen moving about, in all the decencies and delights of domestic life: in the garden, and at the table, her seat is empty. Who values health so much as the man who has been made to possess months of vanity, and had wearisome nights appointed him; "when the soul refuses dainty meat, and his life draws near to the destroyers?" You children do value your mother; but you will value her more when she is withdrawn, and in vain you look after the bosom that has been the asylum of your course. Then you will enter into the meaning of David's words-" As one that mourneth for his mother." "The word of the Lord was precious in those days." What days? The days of conviction. You remember, Christians, such seasons: you remember the wormwood and the gall: you remember how, by some Scripture, or by some sermon, or by some providence, your carnal heart was broken up, and conscience, which had been a slave, grew into the majesty of a judge, and summoned you to his bar. You have felt that your case was desperate as to yourselves, that it was beyond the reach of men and angels. And who told you that there was hope in Israel concerning this thing? You say,

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If you were sick unto death, and you saw a number of books in a room upon a table where you were seated, and you should ask, "What are these?" and a person should say, "O, one of them treats of your very disorder, and announces a remedy for it that was never received in vain." "O," you would say, bring that book here; read that book to me; that is the most precious book for me." How did the Bible fill your minds, awakened and enlightened, at first! O, how above every other book were the Scriptures regarded: how precious was the word of the Lord then: how often your tear dropped upon the page then how you delighted to hear the word: how you numbered the days and the hours before you repaired to the house of God to hear the words of eternal life!

"The word of the Lord was precious in those days." What days? The days of affliction. Who is free from affliction?" Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." Who is free from it even in this assembly? Is he free who is saying," My purposes are broken, even the thoughts of my heart?" Is he free who, bereaved of his connexions, is saying, "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness?" Is he free whose eye rests upon the shadow of death, and, under the influence of a noisome disease, is saying, "I shall behold man no more?" With the inhabitants of the earth in such days what is precious? Is not the word of God? Ask David, an old and a great sufferer: "Ah," says he, "unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction. This is my comfort in my affliction-thy word has quickened me." The Scripture is never so precious as it is in the hour of trouble: I have been there; I am there. This blessed Book says, as its Author did, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but in me ye shall have peace." It assures us that nothing occurs by chance, that all is the act of heavenly arrangement-the arrangement of our Father and our Friend: that all will be well, for that all is well now: that all our woes and all our mercies tend that all things work together, for good to them that love God. “O,'

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said Bolingbroke under his affliction, " my philosophy forsakes me in my affliction." But did Sir Philip Sidney's philosophy forsake him, when, after a battle, he having to undergo a dreadful operation, said to the surgeon, Sir, you are come to a poor timid creature in himself; but to one who, by the grace of God, is raised above his own weakness: and therefore, do not dishonour your art in sparing the patient?" Did the philosophy of the Church forsake her, when she said, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation ?" I do not know how others feel, but I am never more struck with any thing than with the cruelty of infidels. Here are persons that this Book must comfort, or nothing can do it; and yet these wretches would rob them as sufferers of this only comfort. The afflicted man goes to the house of God, and he finds God, in his affliction, to be a refuge; these wretches would pull down that refuge, and leave him without an asylum, and his poor head bare to the pelting of the pitiless storm. The widow begins to hope when she reads, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them; and let thy widows trust in me:" the wretched infidel comes, and dashes away this only cup of consolation from her parched lips. Never persecute infidels; leave them to that God whose unspeakable gift they despise. Give not your countenance to them; rather consider them as robbers and murderers, and robbers and murderers of the worst kind. Do not consider them friends to liberty: they friends to liberty, who would banish the Bible that is the charter of our everlasting privilegesthat Gospel that makes us free indeed! They friends to freedom! Yes, to their own. As Milton says:

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They bawl for freedom in a senseless mood,

But still are slaves where truth would set them free.

Licence they want who cry for liberty,

For who loves freedom must himself be free."

"The word of the Lord was precious in those days." What days? Dying days. These you have not experienced; but you must experience them. What was it that enlightened and comforted so many, while they were passing through the valley of the shadow of death? They had hope in their end. What inspired this hope? The blessed Gospel of our salvation. What taught them to sing, "O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ?" What was it that taught them that to die was gain; that the enemy was transformed into their best friend? What, but the Scriptures of truth? I was one day called in, to see a poor man on his dying bed; and he began, the moment I entered the room, to address me in these words: "Sir," said he, "I have a long journey before me, and I don't know one step of the way." Hobbes of Malmesbury, when he was dying, said, “I leave my body to the grave, and my soul to the great Perhaps. I am taking," says he, "a step in the dark." This was not the worst of it; he was not only taking a step in the dark, but a step into the dark. Cowper, in dying, said, "I take a step in the dark, but not a step into

the dark;" but a step into perfect and endless day, where the sun shall no more go down, nor the moon withdraw her shining; but God would be his everlasting light, and the days of his mourning would be ended.

I really ought to apologize to you, my Christian friends, for detaining you so long. When I came up to London on this short visit, I determined that I would endeavour to preach short. I began well, but was hindered. However, I often remind my young friends, that I did not err in this way originally. When I began my ministry, I said there was one excellency within my reach, and I determined I would avail myself of this, namely, brevity; and for years I seldom preached\ much more than half an hour. Some of you, I dare say, will recollect this was the case when I came to occupy this pulpit first, now forty-seven years ago. I was then a youth about nineteen years of age. Where am I now? I hardly know. The minister is growing old; his matter is grown under his hand: he has seen thousands hanging upon his lips; and as he grows in years, he knows that his opportunities of addressing you must be diminished: he has been anxious to fasten the word as a nail in a sure place; and, therefore, he has struck the head of it again, and again, and again, in order to drive it in: but the matter must now be resigned.

And what arises from the whole of this discourse? Why that we should all bless God for our Bibles-for a Bible inspired, for a Bible preserved, for a Bible translated, for a Bible printed, for a Bible brought within the reach of all; a Bible published, a Bible explained, and a Bible applied to the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. And then while we bless God for the inestimable privilege ourselves, let us pity those who are destitute of it. Let us pray-and let us shew by our exertions and sacrifices that our prayers are fervent, or at least sincere "Let thy way be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all nations."

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E REBUILDING OF THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM.

REV. J. W. CUNNINGHAM, A.M

ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH, CLERKENWELL, MARCH 15, 1835 *.

"So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."-NEHEMIAH, iv. 6.

It will be perceived at once, that these words have been chosen with a distinct reference to the subject which has called us together to-night. I have been brought into your presence, Christian brethren, for the express purpose, however unworthy of the office, of endeavouring to commend to the affection and sympathies of this congregation, the religious interests of this particular district. and the sustenance of that edifice of religion, in which, through the providence of God, we are assembled together to-night. I believe there is no reason that I should particularly press on the members of this congregation the duty of so sustaining this edifice, because "the people had a mind to work;" and an especial blessing has rested upon their endeavours. But in as far as God shall enable me, I will endeavour to sustain and cherish that spirit: for which purpose I have chosen, from the book of Nehemiah, an account of the labours of the people, after their return from their captivity, in rebuilding the walls of the holy city. It appears to me that these chapters, very interesting in themselves, will supply certain suggestions which, through God's infinite blessing, may be profitable to the persons hearing. May God, of his infinite mercy, be pleased to bless the simple remarks, which it will be my endeavour to offer.

I would wish to direct your attention, in the first place, to the persons by whom the work was mainly performed; and, secondly, to the spirit in which, under God's blessing, it was accomplished.

Consider, in the first place, THE PERSONS BY WHOM THIS WORK OF REBUILDING THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY IS SAID то HAVE BERN PERFORMED.

The class of persons first named as labourers in this great work are the priests. “Then," it is said, "Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep-gates; they sanctified it and set up the doors of it; even unto the towers of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel." In this case the work began-the work being especially connected with religion, leading to the rebuilding of the temple-the work began, as it

For the support of the funds of the Church.