'He hath taken and will retain possession of heaven, until the time when all these things shall be accomplished, which God hath foretold by the mouth of all his holy prophets." He who came the first time to save sinners, will come the second time to judge them; he who came the first time to bear our sins, will come the second time to condemn them. Now we are enjoying the day of comfort, when the Lord does not appear in the tempest but in the soft gentle sound; oh then let our hearts be touched by this soft gentle sound! Let us kneel down at the manger, let us worship with the pious shepherds, let us strow myrrh with the kings from the East.

2. The Lord is not in the tempest, but in the soft still sound;— this has been verified in the progress of Christ through the world. 'He had,' as the apostle tells us, not thought it robbery to be equal with God, he had deprived himself of his rightful dignity, and taken the form of a servant, and he became even like another man, and was found in appearance as a man."2 But even among men there are gods; that is, there are such as, on account of the dignity and elevation of their rank in relation to other men, are called gods of the earth. Yet it was submitted to his choice, whether he would reign in a palace, or in a hut; whether the proclamation, come unto me, ye who are miserable and heavy laden,' should be sounded from a throne or from the highways and hedges;-whether nothing but the brightness of a celestial world, that had been kept concealed, should come to the eyes of mortals, or at the same time the brightness of an earthly dignity should blind them. But lo! the Lord is in the gentle soft sound. The house of a carpenter in Nazareth is not too low for the king of heaven, that he should abide therein; the woollen garment, woven throughout, is not too strait for the Lord of glory that he should wrap himself in it as he travelled through this vale of earth. The King of all kings chooses the office of a servant, among servants, his subjects;-in this way did he go forth to meet his finite brethren.

Yet even in this humble disguise, how different might have been his mode of confronting a sinful world, from what it was. Though no star glistened on his breast, and no crown upon his head, yet he carries even in his humiliation thunder and lightning on his tongue, thunder and lightning in his hands. What had been the result, if every word from the lips of the holy man had been an imprecation against 2 Phil. 2: 6, 7.

1 Acts 3: 21.

sin, and every speech a proclamation of justice against the transgressor? The Lord, the God of Israel says to Jeremiah, the prophet,'Take this cup, full of wrath, from my hand, and pour out of the same upon all the people to whom I send you.' How had it been if the Son himself had appeared, with the cup full of wrath in his hand, and with his voice of authority, to execute justice upon a fallen world? But the Lord is not in the tempest; he is in the soft gentle sound. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people; speak ye kindly to Jerusalem; proclaim to her that her warfare is accomplished, and her sin is forgiven,'-this was the text of his prophetical discourse. When he comes, for the first time, into the synagogue of Nazareth, he turns to the saying of the prophet, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, and sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal bruised hearts, to proclaim to the captives that they may be at liberty, to the blind that they may receive sight, and to the bruised that they may be free and unshackled ;—to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And as all eyes in the synagogue were fastened upon him, he began to say unto them,-This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' 'Wisdom is justified of her children, and becomes the companion of publicans and sinners."—— He does indeed bear in his hand a cup of wine ;-but it is not the wine of the wrath of God; it is the wine with which the Samaritan washes the wounds of the bruised man; it is the cup of wine, of which he says, 'Drink ye all of it; it is my blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many, for the remission of sins.' For the prophets of the Old Testament there is no higher praise, than that they moved about in the spirit and the power of Elias,' as it is also written of John the Baptist; that they opened their mouth, and restrained not their voice, and proclaimed aloud,—' The axe is laid at the root of the tree.' But of this prophet of the New Dispensation it is written, in delightful words, what is written of none besides,—“He shall not strive nor cry, and his voice shall not be heard in the street; a bruised reed shall he not break, and the glowing wick shall he not quench.' Thus does Isaiah prophesy concerning him; and do you know a more delightful and appropriate coloring, with which to picture him forth? Ye glowing wicks, ye shall not be extinguished altogether; thou bruised reed, thou shalt not be completely broken; for not in the tempest doth the Lord move among us, but as a soft gentle sound.

1 Luke 4: 18-21. 7: 35.

We have only spoken of the thunder and the lightning, which might have come forth from the Messiah's preaching; but he also had the same power over the thunder and the lightning in his miraculous interpositions. He who can lay his hand on the blind, and they see, can also nod, and those who see shall be made blind. He who can say to the leper,' be clean,' can cover the clean with a leprosy. He who can say to the dead, stand up,' can place the living in the slumber of death by his bare will. The storm which is stilled in obedience to his nod, must also obey him when he calls it up from the abyss, to destroy his adversaries. You owe it to this aspect of the works and conduct of Christ, that when his miraculous power is spoken of, you think merely of a miraculous power which blesses. There is, however, a miraculous power of which the Scripture speaks, which instead of blessing, punishes. It is in the Old Testament that we discover, preeminently, a manifestation of this power. There is an instance of it in the speech of Moses against Korah's company. 'When he had uttered these words,' it is said, 'the earth beneath them was rent asunder, and it opened its mouth, and swallowed them up; and they went down alive into the pit, they and every thing which they possessed; and-the earth covered them up.' In the same way also does Peter, in the New Testament, say to Ananias,-Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God; and when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and gave up the ghost; and great fear came upon all who heard this.' Lo, in this manner might our Saviour have gone through the world, with his hand uplifted, conjuring the storm from the abyss or the thunder from heaven against every transgressor, an avenger of every crime. Yet the Son of man, it is said, did not come to judge the world, but to save it. The Lord is not in the storm and tempest, but in the soft gentle sound. All his miracles, his miracles of deliverance and of kindness are designed to teach us the spiritual significancy of his appearance on the earth. Yea with perfect faithfulness does the evangelist, when he describes a healing of the sick by Jesus, apply to him the words of the prophet,-' He bore our sickness.' For was it not an endurance of our sickness; did he not in truth take it and bear it in his feeling heart, when he lived from morning until evening surrounded with the infirm and the miserable, whom he relieved?

3. As was his entrance into the world, so was his departure

from it. The same instruction, that was proclaimed by his advent, and by his life, was also proclaimed by his ascension.-How might he have departed? If the Lord of glory whom they had nailed to the cross, but who could not be held by death, had, when risen from the grave and glorified by heaven, gone to the place of his agonies, to the mount of Olives, and there waved his banner of victory before all the world; he had only to give one nod, and the city which had cried out against him,-' Away with Jesus, release unto us Barabbas,' would have sunk into the deep, like Sodom and Gomorrah; and the people who had cried,- His blood come upon us and upon our children,' must have shrieked out,-' Ye mountains, cover us, and ye hills fall upon us.' Yet here also the Lord was not in the storm and the tempest, but in the soft sound. Early in the morning did he once more assemble his own in Jerusalem; darkness still brooded over the streets of the city; he then walked, in the stillness of the morning twilight, with the eleven to the mountain, which had witnessed his bloody sweat on the night of his sorrows. The earliest rays of the opening day shone through the clouds; and then, says the history, he lifted up his hands, and blessed his chosen ones, and a cloud took him up from the earth. Amid the shades of night he came; in the redness of the morning dawn he went away; ever, ever shalt thou stand before our souls, thou glorified Saviour, in the same attitude in which thou didst leave the world, with thy hands extended over thy chosen to bless them! Yea, the Lord is not in the tempest, but in the soft, mild sound!

Oh beloved, who of you is so unsusceptible, that such love cannot allure him. As long as it is called to-day, thy God cometh in a gentle sound. Receive him. Surrender to him thy heart. He will at a future time come in the storm, and the heaven and the earth shall flee away. Then will he not smite thee, but judge thee. Oh, to-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.'

1 See Note F, at the close of the Sermons.

SERMON III.1

CAUSES OF THE PRACTICAL INEFFICIENCY OF OUR RESOLUTIONS
TO DO GOOD.

A NEW academical half-year is a new section of life ; and the man who is conscious of an object in living, begins every distinct period of his life with new resolutions. The boy enters upon the period of youth with new resolves; every new year and the new day begins with new resolves; and with new resolves do you, academic youth, commence the new half-year. But at every such fresh resolution a thought arises, which breaks the wing of him who was just ready to soar, and by destroying his confidence robs him of his strength; it is the thought of the many resolutions we have made already, which have been like water poured out; the thought of our innumerable purposes and deeds, which have been attended with no success. We stand upon a hill-top; the path of life lies behind us, resolutions at every one of its stopping places ;-resolutions, but no results. And where this is the fact, are we able to look with confidence into the future? What wonder, if, when the eye glances back upon the last period of life, and idly rests upon the hope, that as the land behind us has been one of resolutions only, so that before us will be one of results,-what wonder, I say, if even the doubt should then thrust itself upon the mind,- Who knows, but in the land before us also-!' Has a resolution never been brought to successful issue on the earth? Who then will give security, that it shall be successful hereafter.-And who can stand with a wing so broken, without being an object of commiseration? And would Christianity deserve the name of a power, if it could carry men on no further than this? Never, never! Either Christianity is no power from God, or we, who have not firmness to execute the purpose of doing everything demanded by the divine will, are no Christians; we belong not to the same company of disciples with him, who though he was clothed like ourselves with flesh and blood, yet cried out,' I can do all things through him who strengtheneth me.'

For an Analysis of this Sermon, see Note G, at the close of the Sermons.