men. sibility. Let it not be told in heaven that God's people on earth are opposing obstacles to the salvation of perishing In doing this, ye parents, ye may be keeping your own children out of heaven. In doing this, ye who have unconverted friends sustaining to you the tenderest earthly relations, you may be assisting to fix their doom in wo for cver. In doing this, ye Christians of every class and of every condition, you are opposing the interests of God's holy kingdom, opposing the design of the Saviour's death, opposing the salvation of immortal souls. But you cannot do this, and think what you are doing. It must be that you are acting incautiously. Awake then to solemn reflection. Awake to earnest prayer. Awake to faithful and persevering action. Else there may be sinners who will greet you at the last day, as the stumbling blocks over which they fell into eternal perdition. 9* LECTURE IV. DIVINE AGENCY IN REVIVALS. HABAKKUK iii. 2. O Lord, revive thy work. THERE are few, if any, who acknowledge the existence. of a God, but will be ready to admit that he has some kind of agency in the government of the world. What the precise nature or extent of this agency is, however, it were rash even to attempt to determine. Part of it is direct; but much the greater part of it, at least so far as we are concerned, is mediate; and it is not easy for us accurately to draw the line between the one and the other. Besides, he has created a vast multitude of agents, and moral agents; but though he has given them the power of action, he has not made them independent beings; though they act with perfect freedom, yet he acts in them and by them. Is not every man in this respect a mystery to himself? Who will venture to determine, in reference to his own conduct precisely the measure of influence that is exerted upon him by that Almighty agent, in whom are all the springs, not only of physical, but intellectual and moral being? As it is admitted by all except the downright atheist that God has some kind of agency in the government of the world, while yet there is much in respect to the nature and extent of that agency which we cannot understand, so also it is admitted by all Christians that he exerts an in fluence in the sanctification of men, though they do not pretend exactly to define the character of that influence. On the same general principle, those who believe in revivals of religion, believe that God is the grand agent in producing them; though they are well aware that here, as in other departments of his agency, he "moves in a mysterious way;" and that this is no field for a roving fancy or rash speculation. Something however may be known on this subject from God's word; and on a matter of such deep and awful concern, while we are to take heed that we keep fairly within our own province, it surely becomes us to gather up with devout attention even the most obscure of the divine intimations. I design therefore in this discourse, to bring this subject before you; and keeping an eye on the law and the testimony in connection with the unequivocal dictates of experience, reverently to inquire respecting THE AGENCY OF GOD in revivals of religion. The passage which I have read to you, taken from the prayer of Habakkuk, may be a fit introduction to this subject; for though the petition is made up of five words— "O Lord, revive thy work"-it recognises the fact of God's agency in a revival in two different ways:-it declares that the work is God's; and it is the direct expression of a desire that he would revive it. This agency may be advantageously considered under two distinct heads: I. The agency of Providence. I. Of Providence. It is one of the most simple deductions from the perfections of God, that he orders all things according to the counsel of his own will; in other words, that he has a plan which includes all events; which extends even to the numbering of hairs and the falling of sparrows. Of course,nothing ever occurs to an individual, but is designed to answer some purpose in the chain of events; and it is reasonable to consider the less important events as ordered in reference to the more important;—the one sustaining to the other the relation of means to an end; though it must be acknowledged that if particular events are viewed in relation to the whole system of Providence, our views are too limited to enable us to judge of their comparative importance. Now it will readily be acknowledged. that no event ever occurs in the life of an individual so important to him as his conversion; the change of his character -from being a subject of pollution to a subject of holiness; and of his destiny-from being an heir of misery to an heir of glory. It is reasonable therefore to suppose that many events in his life which, taken by themselves, may seem of little moment, may nevertheless be designed by Providence to lead to this wonderful change. And if I mistake not, every Christian, especially every one whose first experience has been strongly marked, will find, on review, that he was led to the fountain of atoning blood by a path which he knew not; that God was working by circumstances of which, at the time, he himself made no account, to prepare him to come out of darkness into marvellous light. haps his serious impressions originated in what seemed an accidental conversation with some friend ;-a conversation which he did not court, and which would have been avoided if he had happened to walk on the opposite side of the street; or perhaps he was brought to reflection by some discourse which he had gone to listen to from mere curiosity; or possibly some circumstance may have occurred where he would least have looked for it-in connection with his amusements or his excesses, which God has overruled as a means of stopping him in his career of guilt. I doubt not that there are those among you, Christian Per friends, who may, at this moment, be going back in your thoughts to some event which, at the time, you scarcely noticed, as having marked the era of your first setting your face towards heaven; and now that you can look at that event in some of its more remote influences, you are ready in devout thanksgiving to the providence of God, to connect with it all the joy that you have in believing in Jesus, and in the hope of hereafter seeing him as he is. Now if it is right to consider God as ordering the events of his providence with reference to the conversion of a single individual, it is certainly safe to form the same conclusion in respect to the conversion of many individuals; in other words, in regard to a revival of religion. There may be obstacles to be removed which seem to lie beyond all human power; but these God not unfrequently puts aside by an agency so silent and simple that men do not even observe it; while in other cases, though more rarely, he accomplishes the same end by some signal dispensation which almost bears the aspect of a miracle;-waking up even the careless mind to the reflection, "What hath God wrought!" Sometimes by the death of an individual, there is an organized and efficient opposition to the gospel put down; and sometimes by an individual changing his residence, there is a large accession of religious influence to some community; and the means of grace are multiplied; and a revival of religion succeeds. There may be some alarming dispensation of providence to arouse many simultaneously to reflection; or some one whose influence is extensively felt may become the subject of renewing grace, and may be a kind of central point from which good influences shall extend in every direction. It is fully believed that, in all ordinary cases in which a revival takes place, it would be no difficult thing to mark a distinct providential agency preparatory to it; and especially where the cause of religion has |