dom of his grace and mercy; his ability and willingness to save them. "Transforming them by the renewing of their mind "," he leads them to discern, and to love the law of God, and to serve him in sincerity of heart, and in newness of life. Turned, by his power, "from darkness unto light," they feel the value of that pardon, of that peace, of that holiness, of that bliss, which constitute the salvation which the Saviour bestows; and they wonder that they could have so long loved darkness, the cheerless, debasing darkness of sin, when they could have enjoyed this divine, this holy, and this comforting light. Brethren-It is an enquiry of infinitely more importance than any other which can occupy you, whether the "day-spring from on high," to use the emphatic language of the Apostle', "hath shined into our hearts;"-whether Jesus Christ has shone there with his holy effulgence, and dispersed the shades of error and of sin. It is surely possible-melancholy observation renders it certain-that the light of Gospel day never reaches the hearts of thousands who externally enjoy its inestimable beams. Called to be "children of the light," they walk as children of darkness, "in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness, in strife and envying”—and make d Rom. xii. 2. e Acts xxvi. 18. ' Luke i. 78. only "provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof"." If less strongly marked, as the children of darkness, still they are far from being "children of the light;" for they rejoice not spiritually in Jesus Christ, as their light and their salvation; they do not make it their supreme object to perform his will, to serve him in holiness and righteousness; they love not his ordinances, and seek not in them his grace and favour; nor offer themselves, their souls and bodies, a living sacrifice to him. They are sleeping in the night of darkness; and their sleep may be the sleep of death! Yet they disregard and contemn the voice that calls them to awake. Thou, their Saviour, by the threats of thy word; by the warnings of thy providence; by the monitions of thy Spirit; by the invitations of thy mercy; by thy blood shed for them; by thy intercession shielding them from vengeance, dost seek to arouse and allure them Ye spiritual slumberers, awake, and I will give you light. Listen, I beseech you, to his call. Come to your Saviour in penitence and faith, for light and salvation. Your spiritual darkness shall be dispelled. Jesus Christ, by his word, and by his Spirit, through his ministry, and in his ordinances, will shine into your hearts. As" the morning star," he will arise there, shedding the lustre of holiness, of peace, and of joy; a peace Rom. xiii. 13. and joy, not like the empty shadows that delude you in your spiritual slumber, but real, permanent, exalted, and eternal. For those in whose hearts the day of shone, Jesus Christ will usher in III. The day of eternal purity and joy. grace hath That day which error, and sin, and sorrow, shall never cloud; in which truth, and holiness, and bliss, shall be displayed, pure and resplendent, for ever. Jesus, our Lord, hath gone before, "the morning star," the harbinger of this glorious day; which, when this night of sin and sorrow is ended, will rise on all his people; on all in whose souls his grace hath shone, and transform them into his holy image. This is the day to which "the Lord will be an everlasting light, and God himself an eternal glory i." It is the day, which, witnessing the full consummation of the righteous, by the re-union of their souls to bodies incorruptible and glorious, will display to their enraptured contemplation, the works of God shining forth with splendour and beauty; "the innumerable company of angels, and the just made perfect” crowned with glory; and the throne of the Godhead, and Jesus, whom they loved, and who loved them, in his glorified human nature, beaming with an effulgence, which even their spirits, endued with celestial energy, can scarcely support, and which will fill them with the ecstasy of joy. It will be a day, the glory and bliss of which will increase for ever. For it will be the day which the Lord hath made for his chosen, and in which they will rejoice in the songs of angels. Christians while you sojourn in this night of darkness, where your knowledge is imperfect, your holiness incomplete, your joy alloyed by sorrow, never lose sight of this glorious day. Looking forward to it, by the eye of faith, you should be raised above the imperfect and too generally corrupting pleasures that here solicit you. Your hearts should be filled with love and gratitude to him who, "the root and the offspring of David," "God manifest in the flesh'," that he might be your Saviour, is also that "bright and morning star," who will for ever shed on your souls the radiance of bliss; and whose splendour, the splendour of the Godhead, will awaken the ceaseless hallelujahs of the redeemed. Come then, that blissful day, in which we shall for ever ascribe wisdom, and honour, and glory, and power," to thee, blessed Jesus!" the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star"!" 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. m Rev. v. 12, 13. SERMON XI. GOD'S NAME GREAT AMONG THE GENTILES. [FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.] MALACHI i. 11. From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering. For my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts. INCREDIBLE, in the view of those to whom it was delivered, regarding only human instruments and human power, must have appeared this prediction. The nations of the world, in bondage to the grossest idolatry, offered divine honours to the work of their hands, and even deified the lowest and vilest of the animate and inanimate creation. In the land of Judea alone, a small band of tributary Jews enjoyed the knowledge of the one living and true God, and magnified him as the Maker and Ruler of the universe; while "darkness covered |