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We must continue instant in prayer. If we be incredulous that the spiritual rain will follow effectual fervent prayer, let us remember that the elemental rain stayed for three years and six months as prayer deprecated it, then gushed in torrents immediately it was implored. Was the general system, through all its laws and bearings, were the evaporation of the clouds,-the composition of the atmospheric fluids,—the balance of the electrical poles,— the whole aërial œconomy,—many of the operations of this planet itself,-all controlled and affected because Elias prayed?-and shall that influence be denied which is the subject of incessant promise, whose gift involves no disturbance of any arrangement, and which has a far greater affinity, as a moral element, than any physical change can have, with the exercise of believing prayer? Prayer sets all in motion, touches every spring, pervades every sphere. "I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.”

"It is time to seek the Lord!"

How many are there who "Seek ye the Lord while

have yet to seek him for themselves! he may be found." "His power and his wrath are against all them that forsake him." The hoary-headed sinner is still found in this contumacy. The young turn not at our call. "They die in youth and their life is among the unclean." What unconcern prevails! "And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee!"

But it is time to seek the Lord in reference to the field, so broad, so waste, which we are appointed to break up and cultivate. If He have assigned the work to any and they neglect it, "what will He do unto those husbandmen ?" On this score, have we not heavy sins? Is it not "the field of the slothful ?" Have we not lightly surveyed it? Have we not hypocritically bemoaned it? Have we not idled in it? Time calls aloud to us. He checks not his pace. He inverts not his glass. He shoulders not his scythe. Other mowers are there before him. It is not that all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field, that surely the people is grass,-it is idolatry committing its havoc and breathing its taint,-it is the destroyer

binding his bundles,-the course of nature is set on fire of hell! All bids us go and labour. How sweep the wheels of Providence, and we hear them roll! How ring out the trumpets of Prophecy, and all vibrates to them! We must loiter no longer. The rest of our time in the flesh must we redeem. We cannot say that we are not hired. Nor can we say that our scanty labour has been in vain. We have not spent our strength for nought. The handful of corn, which was on the top of the mountains, now shakes like Lebanon. What district of the field does not encourage us? What portion of our tillage does not

succeed?

They have sunk under the Some have set their hand to Others have scattered their

We are constantly reminded that the most diligent and useful labourers are removed from the scene of their toil and success. "The fathers, where are they ?" burden and the heat of the day. the plough: they looked not back. store of seed: meekly they awaited the earliest green. Their successions are withdrawn. But it is only that they may be replaced. And there are the reapers also. They not only reap, but gather and bind the sheaves.

We behold the most honoured of these labourers, in many instances of increasing age or premature exhaustion, “earnestly desiring the shadow." They have learned what is the rapid progress of their day, and how swift is its decline. Many are our advantages. We may praise the living more than the dead. We witness an immense growth of our glorious work, and of its sublime satisfactions. Our departments vary, but our work is one. "And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth." We are resolved that the boundless field which we have entered shall be more narrowly explored and more carefully tilled. We will keep our station to the last, and, should our Father who is the Husbandman please, far into the twilight of our eve. We envy not another task. His work is honourable and glorious, and we are employed upon it. As we have received mercy, we faint not. We live for another age. It may be but the initial labour, it may be but a weary land; but when He reckoneth with us, we shall not be less honoured with his plaudit than he who bindeth

the last sheaf, and to whom it shall be given to complete the garner. Whatever of time may divide, whatever of labour may distinguish, he "that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together!"

What we desire to impress is, the advantageous position which Christians now occupy. Our means of influence, our opportunities of action, are terrible! It is fearful to think how much rests with us, how much may be done by us! We have access at every point of the Pagan world! The "chief of the nations" are subdued to us! "Even the ancient high places are ours in possession!" We are called to another kind of responsibility than that which before was ever known! "New things does God declare." Speculative enquirers needed their day. They have had their day. We are called to active obedience and zeal. We must have a mind to work." Our department is plainly indicated to us. Can ambition crave one more glorious? Is there a field more rich in its peaceful trophies for us to harvest?

"Now He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness!"

SERMON XIX.

THE GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION.

HEB. ii. 10.

"FOR IT BECAME HIM, FOR WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, AND BY WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, IN BRINGING MANY SONS UNTO GLORY, TO MAKE THE CAPTAIN OF THEIR SALVATION PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS."

We may conceive of a summons to behold some new act of the Creative power. We can suppose that we were caught up to some distant star for our platform of observation. Imagination will picture to us a few of the sentiments of awe and wonder with which we should gaze on the tremendous scene. At the utterance of the Almighty fiat the void of space fills and teems with sudden glories. Worlds are built up in immediate maturity. Suns flame forth with embodied splendour. Nothing is transformed: all is made. It is the mass evoked from vacancy. It is the light struck from darkness. It is the outbirth from nothingness. We have but to multiply and enlarge our ideas and impressions, and we approach to the proper thought of the spectacle, and to the proper capacity of describing it. It is magnificence surpassing whatsoever we have known in the processes of the Infinite Agency. It may be magnificence unparalleled in its results. But the characteristic types can be seized by us. The indicative principles can be appreciated by us. At the mode, indeed, we cannot guess. Of the phænomena, - the magnitude, the form, the brightness, the extent, we, notwithstanding, may entertain some ideas. Wisdom there imprints its manifold marks. Power there strews its grandest trophies. Authority there peals its most absolute behests. We can, by the very constitution of our senses and perceptions, understand and estimate wisdom, power,

and authority. Yet until now, this is only a material operation. It is a lavish majesty. It is a gorgeous apparatus. It is no more than a mechanical effect. It is the might of the Deity in direct productions of outward, sensible, works. Even wisdom, power, and authority, though thus far expressed, would henceforth be questioned, if those works existed for themselves. They must stand related to some subservient use. It may be said, that when intelligent creatures behold them, they will acknowledge these attributes. But, in this statement, something is premised, an earlier act, a greater issue, namely, that intelligent creatures have been called into being: something is, likewise, conceded, -these works are now applied to a use independent of them, to instruct and profit the intelligent creatures who are their spectators and panegyrists. And even when they think, how feebly is the divine glory unfolded to them, and how feebly is their conception of it assisted! From all this skill and strength, how difficult and slow is the conclusion of the mind that they must be associated with the love of happiness, order, and excellence! How laboured is the inference that perfections, corresponding to these, must necessarily inhere, and perfectly exist, in the First Cause!

Let us now consider ourselves summoned to another exhibition. It shall be to some illustration of the Creator's moral character and government. There is no design to magnify his essential power. If wisdom be within the scheme, it is no longer simple skill and contrivance, but the resolution of relative and subjective difficulties which no creative exercise could comprehend. The authority is not the right to act, but legislative control. Other properties must be displayed. Though their archetypes were always in His mind, they are manifested to us by his administrations. He bears certain aspects to us, and we are proportionately regarded by him. He is our King and Lawgiver: we are his subjects. He must rule us in truth and justice, and in these is involved his holiness. We can only prove his truth in testimonies of his will: we can only establish his justice in deeds of rectitude. This is a new phase of enquiry. It is a new complexion of thought. Still it is not unnatural to us. As we can under

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