and thirst after righteousness, for ye shall be filled." We address you in the words of Peter and John to the poor cripple; "Silver and gold have we none; but such as we have we give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." All ye that labour and are heavy laden under a sense of guilt and a burthened consience, we bid you come to Christ, and he will give you rest. His blood cleanseth you from all sin. He satisfieth the righteous judgment of God upon your innumerable transgressions. He has paid your debts to offended justice, and reconciled you to God by the blood of his cross. "He filleth the hungry with good things, and the rich He sendeth empty away.' For your sakes He became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich. Though the Son of the most high God, and partaking of all the glory of the Father, yet He emptied and "made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He accepteth no man's person. Have thou but upon thee the marks of a true, penitent, godly sorrow for sin, and faith in Christ as the only atoning sacrifice for sin, and thy poverty shall recom mend thee to his notice and regard. "Be thou but

a sorrowing disciple, though the very lowest and meanest, and thou shalt receive a disciple's reward. If thou come to the feet of Jesus, and bathe them with thy tears, and have but " the hair of thy head" to wipe them, thy love and faith shall be memorialized and recorded on high, and be rewarded before men and angels. He shall "give unto you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness: that ye might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord." Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. He will never leave thee nor forsake thee. "I have been young, says the psalmist, and now am old, and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread." "Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich." Although poor in this world's esteem, your's are the unsearchable riches of Christ. Your's a gospel of peace and comfort: forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified. We no where in scripture read Blessed are the rich; on the contrary, they affirm "they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which

drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." They only can read their title clear to what Christ has done and suffered for them, who are rich in faith and good works. Who live by faith, and not by sight: who are not possessed of their inheritance, but through patience wait for it. Who hunger and thirst after righteousness; not those who are full in this world, and have received their consolation, and who look for no more durable possessions than what this world affords; who trust in uncertain riches, rather than in the living God. Woe to all such. Ye have drained the cup of this world's good; ye have lived in pleasure upon the earth; ye have neglected seeking the pearl of great price, and frittered away your eternal salvation, forgetful of the true riches. These, so far from being rich, though surrounded with the good things of this life, and faring sumptuously every day-" surely they are poor; they are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." "Go to, now," says St. James, "ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and

your

garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire." Such is the woe that awaits unsanctified, abused riches. I say abused. For riches, like poverty, may prove a blessing in the hands of him who uses them for God, as a good steward of his manifold grace. Blessed, thrice blessed are ye rich! Ye shine as lights in the world. Ye " Ye" provide bags which wax not old, a treasure which is in heaven." But when riches are not so used, not so dispensed, not so blessed; no language can describe the misery and condemnation of that wicked and thoughtless servant, when he shall be called to give an account of his stewardship.

Let us therefore attend to the third description of poor, for whom also the preaching of the Gospel was designed: such as are in another, but a very different sense with the last mentioned, spiritually poor; being destitute of saving grace: though without knowing it. Such are they who trust for acceptance with God to something in themselves, the merit of their own good works, their blameless lives, and innocent conversation; and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, or that method of salvation which he has set forth in his Son Jesus

Christ. Good works, my brethren, and a good life, flowing from faith in Christ, and as fruits thereof, so far from being of no importance, are indispensably necessary to salvation, inasmuch as "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." But if we lay a stress upon them, a weight which they were never intended to bear, by making our works the cause of our justification before God, and of our being reconciled to Him, and absolved from the guilt of our past transgressions, we convert our good works to an end foreign from their primary and principal design, as the condition, not the cause of our salvation; we put ourselves in the place of Christ, and make the merit of his death and sacrifice utterly nugatory, and of none effect. In vain is the Gospel preached to you, except ye confess yourselves to be poor. In vain do we preach to you that Christ died for your sins, if even your best works may save you. This, my brethren, is a dangerous delusion. "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But "because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,