companions to see a fine mansion, sat still, surveying a flower that had arrested his eye, and said, "I see more in this flower than in all the mansions I have ever seen, or can sce. 'Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'"

"So it is when the mind is imbued

With a well-judging taste from above;
Then whether embellished or rude,
'Tis nature alone that we love.

The achievements of art may amuse,
May even our wonder excite;

But groves, hills, and valleys diffuse

A lasting and sacred delight."

And yet we have met with persons who have a real taste for nature as nature: but then they have never regarded it as the handmaiden of grace-never made it the representative and the remembrancer of better things. Yet there is a striking analogy between the works of nature and the works of grace. It is very true that God has magnified his word above all his name. "Behold," says he, "I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." The blessings of the Scripture are infinitely superior to the blessings of the field: yet the one furnishes illustrations of the other, and was designed to furnish them; and by a holy chemistry we may extract heaven from earth; by a holy mechanism we may make the creature a ladder by which to ascend to the Creator; by spiritual-mindedness and meditation, we may render every place a house of God, every avenue the gate of heaven, every object a preacher. The rising sun may tell us of the Sun of Righteousness rising with healing under his wings. The refreshing dew may remind us of the doctrine of divine grace. And says Isaiah, "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

But it appears to me, after reflection, that Isaiah, in these words, means to trace a resemblance between these natural and spiritual influences: first, in their divine origin; secondly, in the importance of their produce; thirdly, in their mode of operation; and, fourthly, in their success. Consider what we say; and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

We apprehend, Isaiah means to trace the resemblance between these natural and spiritual influences, first IN Their divine orIGIN. They have one and the same Author. "The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven;" so does the Gospel. "My word," says God, "which proceedeth out of my mouth." "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." There are some who imagine the Apostle James here means to establish a distinction between these gifts-between the good gifts and the perfect gifts; applying the good gifts to earthly, and the perfect gifts to the spiritual benefits. This is perhaps too curious for the text itself: but it is true that there is such a difference between them and it is equally true that they all descend from above; that they all come down from the God of all grace. This is unquestioned with regard to the snow and the rain. Every one knows that if God were to with

hold these, no creature could obtain a fall of the one, or a shower of the other. "Can any among the vanities," asks Jeremiah, "of the Gentiles, give rain?” And what is the inference now to be derived from this? If God gives the less, who gives the greater? Is light from him, and is spiritual illumination from ourselves? "No," says the Apostle, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." Does the life of an insect or of a plant come from God, and is the life which is emphatically called the life of God-is this self-derived? "No," says the Apostle, "you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Does the verdure of the meadows, and the fertility of the fields and the gardens, praise God; and do our duties, and good works, and grace, praise ourselves? No," says the Apostle, "if we are filled with all the fruits of righteousness, it is by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." "This people," says God, "have I formed for myself: they shall show forth my praise."

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And this brings us to a particular reflection; for you cannot suppose that we are going to dwell at large, this morning, upon the evidences of the divine original of the Gospel-evidences which successively engage your attention from time to time; evidences derived from prophecy, from miracles, and from the character of the Saviour; and from the establishment and the spread of Christianity, and from various other proofs-proofs so convincing, that the man who does not perceive the force of them, must surely either have closed his eyes himself, or have compelled God to do it for him. But our design now, is tonly to what analogy supplies.

It is commonly, and it is justly, supposed, that the works of nature lead to God as their Author; that there are upon them impression of Deity; that such is the immensity of some, and the minuteness of others, and the perfection of the whole, so far transcend all human endeavours to imitate them, that we are constrained to say,

"The hand that made them is divine."

"This is the finger of God." So it is with the Gospel. To me, I confess, the internal evidences of revelation are more powerful than the external. Not that we give up the external, not that we undervalue them; yea, we consider them unanswerable: if not, why have they not been answered? Why, to this hour, has no masterly infidel undertaken to refute Grotius, or Lardner, or Leslie, or Doddridge, or Paley, or Watson, instead of just repeating a few cavils and objections, which have been solved a thousand times over? But the Bible is full of God. I take up this book and read; and I there find an infinite adaptation to my state as a sinner. If I am a wanderer, here is a guide: if I am enslaved, here is redemption: if I am all guilt and weakness, here is righteousness and strength. I take up the book and read, and I immediately perceive that it must have been written by a Being who knew me, and knew me perfectly; and by a Being who was concerned, and perfectly concerned for my welfare; that is the Blessed God. I take up the book and read, and I say, Such heavenly benevolence, and such pure morality, could not flow but from the fountain of all purity and benevolence. I take up the book and read, "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; and the greatest of

these is charity:"" By love serve one another." "Whatsoever things are pare, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things." And I say, What compared with these was pagan antiquity, and what compared with these is modern infidelity? Why Hume himself, when he was asked whether it was better for the common people to reject the Scriptures or to believe in them, immediately replied, "Why to believe in them." And infidels have made such concessions and acknowledgements, as that hereafter, out of their own mouth they will be condemned. I could trust a child with this argument, if he was capable of understanding the subject: I would say to him, "Read our Saviour's sermon on the Mount:" and then I would say, "Come my little man, tell me now, do you imagine, that people, that parents and children, that masters and servants, that the rich and the poor, that husbands and wives, would be the better or the worse by following these instructions and admonitions?" Such a child must perceive, that a peaceable man is a far better man than one who sows discord and strife among brethren; that a man of a gentle, tender disposition is far more loved and far more regarded than a man filled with fierceness, and passion, and envy. Only prove to me that the Bible is desirable, useful, necessary to man; that this alone can rescue him from floundering in the mud and mire of uncertainty, and set his feet upon a rock, and establish his goings; that this alone can free his mind from the most stinging doubts and tormenting fears; that without this all is confusion without him, and all is dark within him; and that this alone can sanctify him in prosperity, sustain him in adversity, and enable him to triumph in death: and I cannot question, without one external argument, I cannot question for a moment but that this is His word which cometh out of his own mouth.

We apprehend, in the second place, that Isaiah means to trace the resemblance between these natural and spiritual influences in THE IMPORTAnce of their PRODUCE. They both yield provision for provision and propagation-seed for the sower, and bread for the eater. What would our world be without the snow and the rain from heaven? If God was to make the heavens over us to be brass, the earth would soon beneath us be iron. So dependant are we and all classes of creatures upon the growth of the soil, that a failure here would soon renew the complaint of the prophet: "The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men."

But now, see the consequence of these influences; how his paths drop fatness; how the valleys are made to stand thick with corn, and the little hills rejoice on every side! And observe how, when these come down, the earth brings forth and buds, and "gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;" that is, furnishes both for present and for future use: for if all were immediately consumed, what would become of those who live after us? But here the providence of God appears in the preparation that is made for present provision and for

future propagation. Here we must lead you back to the beginning of the world, and remind you of the language of Moses, in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, when he says, “God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good." And nothing has been created since. The first man and woman included in them all the human race the first birds, and the first beasts, comprehend all those various classes which have lived since: and the same may be said of the plants, and herbs, and corn.

Now let us see how easily this may be applied to another and a more important subject. Let us ask what would this world be without the Gospel? What would any country, any town, any village, any individual, be without the knowledge of it? Why, ready to perish; why, in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death. But when the Gospel comes, it brings relief to man : it brings along with it the staff of bread, the staff of life-of life spiritual and eternal. In other words, it brings pardon; friendship with God; the renovation of our natures; all "the fruits of the Spirit," which are "joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

And as the husbandman is a sower as well as an eater, so is the Christian. He enjoys the blessings of the Gospel himself; but then he is to convey them to others and the Gospel has been preserved and maintained in our world in the same way with the corn-not by miracle, but by propagation. And in two ways the Gospel provides for its own propagation. The one is, by making it the duty of all those who have received it to extend and diffuse it and the other is, by making it a privilege to do it. And it does this by producing in them a disposition for it; so that their duty becomes their delight. Drop now a single corn in the ground, and it will yield a number of corns: sow these in the ground, and they will produce many more: repeat the operation, and in time, from one single corn you will have a sufficiency with which to disseminate a furlong, a field, a district, a province, a country; yea, and the globe itself. Once all Christianity was centred in Christ: he imparted it to twelve apostles; and then to seventy disciples; and they to thousands more. Says God, "I will sow them" (speaking of his people)" in the earth:" that is, they shall produce their like-they shall multiply: "I will cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." "I will bless them, and make them a blessing."

Now let us suppose other cases. And here we will not only, or principally, confine the exemplification to ministers (God bless them! some of them are the means of turning many to righteousness, and will shine hereafter as stars in the firmament:) but I often think, that no Christian goes to heaven alone: that all the subjects of divine grace, as they wish to be useful, and endeavour to be useful, so they are made useful. God indulges them; they are made useful by their prayers, by their example, their influences, and their exertions. Thus it was with David: David said, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy way; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." But he was a musician; he was a poet;

he was a monarch; he had resources-large resources : he could serve his generation, according to the will of God. And so can you, if you are willing and disposed. And as water is to be found in any place, if men will dig long enough and deep enough, so there is no situation, however inconsiderable and obscure, but contains in it efficiencies, if we will employ them. A brother may bring a brother to Christ, as Andrew brought Peter. A friend may bring a friend to Christ, as Philip brought Nathaniel. A neighbour may bring his neighbour to Christ, as the woman of Sychar did the Samaritans. And masters may instruct and convert their servants: and O, I have met with more servants than one, who have said, "Blessed be God that ever I entered such a family. I was then as ignorant as a heathen; there my feet were turned into the paths of peace." And what a revolution was produced in the family of Naaman, and in all Syria, by a little girl, that was taken captive in war; prattling as she was dressing her mistress's hair, about the prophet of God in Israel.

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One day, in my travels, I heard of a servant who had attended a Wesleyan chapel. This offended her master and mistress, who told her that she must discontinue the practice, or leave their service. She received the information with modesty, and, said she was sorry, but so it must be: she could not sacrifice the convictions of her conscience to keep her place. So they gave her warning: and she was now determined, if possible, to be more circumspect and exemplary than ever; determined, that if she suffered for her religion, her religion should not suffer for her. Some time after this, the master said to the mistress, Why this is rather a hard measure with regard to our servant: has she not a right to worship God where she pleases as well as ourselves?" O yes," said the mistress; " and we never had so good a servant; one who rose so early, and got her work done so well, was so clean, was so economical, never answering again." And so they intimated that she might remain. Some time after this the mistress said the wife said to the husband, "I think Mary's religion does her a great ✔deal more good than our religion seems to do us: I should like to hear her minister." And so she went, and was impressed; and prevailed upon her husband to go, and he was impressed; and now they are all followers of God; and have the worship of God in their house.

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Thus you see how the seed is furnished for the sower, as well as bread for the eater. Now a man goes, (and here, be it remembered, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen) a man goes to a neighbouring city, and is asked to hear a particular preacher: he hears, and his soul lives. He returns home with other views and feelings than those with which he went. His family first occupies and engages his attention. He is now kind to his wife; he is now tender to his children; and labours not only to be impressive, but to be inviting and alluring. But this is not all he looks among his neighbours, and sees them destroyed for lack of knowledge; and his bowels yearn over them. He speaks to them as well as he can himself. But this is not all: he goes to the minister he heard, calls upon him, and tells him, and then weeps and weeps again that at such a time he had heard him to purpose: "But O, Sir, do consider my poor neighbours. O that you would come over and help us! You shall be welcome to my cottage; I wish it was a mansion. I know it may draw upon me reproach, but I can bear reproach for His sake now." The minister goes, preaches, awakens attention. Some oppose; some ridicule: but others