over the hardness of your heart. Your own heart, and the enemy of God and souls; and the influence of the world would all help to make sin desirable to you,would aid to blind your understanding, and to keep you in ignorance, both of yourself and the Saviour. If therefore you mourn over the plague of your heart, "that it is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," and feel that you need to be regenerated, it is a token for good that the Lord hath begun the good work of grace in your heart, and will surely one day perfect it in glory, notwithstanding, the discovery you have of the evil of sin gives you sorrow of heart, and makes you weep on account of it. Thus, my aged friend, you have reason to thank God for what his Spirit has done in you, and to look forward to what it will do in the heavenly world; and through all the scenes of doubt and trouble that may yet vary your path, look up to this gracious guide, this heavenly comforter; the Holy Spirit is promised to abide in you," as a teacher and sanctifier, therefore be much in prayer, that you may feel his cheering and sanctifying influences, and whatever are your cares or sorrows, make them all known unto God; pray to be led by the Spirit daily, that he may guide you into all truth. If you feel your ignorance, pray that he may instruct you; if you find vain thoughts in prayer, pray to have them fixed upon the Saviour; if you are backward to pray, pray the more fervently for a praying spirit. Are you in temporal need? still pray, for your heavenly friend has promised, bread shall be given you,' I will never leave you nor forsake you." Whatever then are your wants, do not keep them to yourself, and say, well, after all I shall be forsaken, but by prayer and supplication make known all your requests to your covenant God and Father in Christ Jesus, and he "will supply all your need;" "'call upon him in the day of trouble, and he will deliver you," be daily casting your care upon him, for he careth for you," he watched over you when an enemy to him by wicked works, and be assured he will not forsake you now, that you are reconciled to him. Oh no, did he not freely for your salvation give up his dear Son to be a sacrifice, shall he not with him also freely give you all other needful things. The promise is peculiarly expressed to aged saints, even to old age he will carry you, and to hoary heirs" he will be with you; fear not therefore, but trust his word, and your heart shall rejoice in his salvation, even here in this world, and ere long he will take you to be with him where he is, to behold his glory, and to praise the riches of his grace, which even "at the eleventh hour" called you "out of darkness into marvellous light." That you may thus rejoice in hope of the glory of God, is the prayer of your sincere friend. REGENERATION.-JOHN iii. 7. To know the Saviour's name, To taste his strengthening love, To feel our fears, and cares, and shame, Exchang'd for thrones above. These, these are thoughts that yield a joy, Renewed-we suppliant fall Our griefs and crimes repeat: Renewed-our spirits mount To drink at an eternal fount, V. N. The heart breathes forth its guilt and pain, And Eden's dreams return again. Renew'd-we soon shall see Our earthly trials o'er; And rise on angel-wings to be With Christ for evermore : These, these are thoughts that yield a joy, Nor earth can give nor hell destroy. G. B. A SERMON ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT CRISIS. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil."-Joel ii. 12, 13. In the beginning of this chapter, we have a prophetic description of a tremendous judgment about to be executed upon the Jewish nation. In the middle of the chapter, there is a most cheering invitation from God to repentance of sin, and conversion unto him, with a most precious promise of pardon, grace, and salvation. At the end, the Prophet rapt into future times, is predicting the abundant outpouring of the Spirit at the season of Pentecost, and during the latter day glory. As no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, and what suits sinners of one age is sometimes applicable to those of another; and as our privileges as a nation universally, and as private characters individually, are greater still in some respects than even those of the Jews; I shall consider the exhortation as coming home with peculiar force to us. The Lord help us to obey the command, and credit the promise. 1st. The pressing exhortation. "Therefore also," &c. &c. Who addresses us? Not mere man, no angel, but the everlasting Lord; he who has all power to save or to destroy, to lift up to heaven, or to cast down to hell; he whose laws we have broken, whose Gospel we have slighted, whose perfections dishonoured, whose atonement we have rejected, and against whom we have been rebelling all the days of our life; the guilt of our sins, his grace alone can pardon, his allatoning blood alone can cancel. Observe the universality of the command,"Turn ye." It is addressed to all, to each, to young and old, male and female, minister and people. When are we to turn? Now, saith the Lord; not to-morrow, next week, next month, next year; but now, ere the sun be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood; now ere you lie upon a bed of sickness, or the couch of death; now while you hear the minister's voice, "Turn ye, turn ye." To whom? To me, saith the Lord, to me the merciful remover of all the sin you dread, the bountiful giver of all the good you anticipate. We are under the most prevailing obligations to turn as a guilty nation. We have done wickedly, we, our king, our princes, our senators, our rulers, our country. We are most highly famed as a nation; most rebellious as a people. How true it is, that because of swearing, Sabbath-breaking, lying, stealing, &c. &c. the land mourneth. We have some of the best laws, and those we break. Infidelity, Popery, Antinomianism, Pharisaism, Socinianism, Deism, the ill examples of many in authority; how these evils abound! to what lengths are they carried! when will the mighty torrent of overspreading corruption be stopped! What wickedness is connived at by our own laws, and how much does the love of gain prevail even in the establishment of some of our laws! What a crying sin it is, that while in our Indian Empire, so many immortal beings are crushed under the wheels of Juggernaut, the government derives revenue from the countless pilgrimages that are made to this idol for the purposes of superstition and the vain hope of atonement for their sins. And yet we call ourselves Christians: but God knows, that as many as are intentionally implicated in these national crimes, have virtually de nied the faith, and are worse than infidels. How sinful and how disgraceful to our land that eight hundred thousand of our fellowmen, fellow-subjects, are groaning under the iron rod of slavery in the West Indies, while no effectual steps are taken to ameliorate their condition, to obliterate this foul stain from our character, the guilt of which nothing but the blood of Jesus can remove, "Be astonished O heavens at this, shall I not be avenged on such a nation as this? saith the Lord of Hosts." Nor is this half of what might be mentioned; but I forbear. I mention these things, not that you should be disaffected to the government under which we live, nor take encouragement from hence to sin with a high hand against God, but to remind you that we are partakers in the nation's guilt, and that unless all repent we shall assuredly perish. But how are we exhorted to turn unto God? With all our heart, with weeping, and fasting, and mourning. National sins call for national mourning and national fasting; and if we had a proclamation from the throne, that a general fast should be observed, it might by the blessing of God be attended with a salutary effect. But, no outward forms of humiliation, no external marks of penitence will avail, unless the heart be broken for sin, rent on account of it, and turned from it; there must be holy mourning and godly sorrow. nor eagerness about the world, which we are always complaining of and yet hugging close to our hearts; our inattention to the moral and religious welfare of our children, apprentices, and servants; our formal profession without the power of godliness, our proud independence, our neither regarding man, fearing God, the fruitful source of many of our miseries, and is not a rejection of the stupendous remedy of the blood of Christ, the reigning sin? If we wish to experience better days, to have the gathering clouds of divine vengeance rolled away from us, to have our church and state preserved from utter ruin, the most ready way under God, is to return unto him from whom we have so greatly departed, with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. You must turn unto the Lord with fasting, &c. The christian duty of fasting is apt to be underrated and ridiculed by some, overrated and rested upon by others. But, be assured, it has its use. Because it is made too much of in popish countries, we are apt to undervalue it. Elijah, Moses, Daniel, Paul, Jesus himself, fasted; and where we make it a means, not an end, where our design in it is the glory of God, the mortification of sin in us, and that we may keep our body under and bring it into subjection, then it answers valuable ends. But the grand thing is to mortify and subdue our sinful affections, to "abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," to mourn for our iniquities. Nor is our mourning to be occasional and superficial; it should be not like the prick of a pin in the finger, but the piercing of a sword in the heart. We may have some idea of its nature, from the description of Ephraim, of the Jews upon their restoration at the day of Pentecost, of the publican, and of Peter. Of Ephraim it is said (and God himself says it) "I have surely lence in spiritual concerns, our over heard Ephraim bemoan himself But what I would call your more particular attention to is, your personal guilt, and need of personal repentance. We have been apt to complain of the distress of the times, the depression of agriculture, the heaviness of the poor laws, the fires of the incendiary, the destruction of machines, &c. but let us ask, are not these things scourges for our sins, as well as awakening calls to repentance ? Are not our indo In thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely, after that I was turned, I repented; after that I was instructed; I smote upon my thigh, I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." Of the Jews it is said, "I will pour upon the house of Judah, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megidden. And the land shall mourn; Of the publican, we read, 'he smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." Our mourning should be like that of Peter, when "he went out and wept bitterly;" or the Jews, under his preaching, when," pricked in their hearts, they cried out, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" But the most important thing in true repentance is, turning unto the Lord our God; turning, not from Popery to Protestantism, not from immorality to morality, not from one material church to another, but from Satan unto God. We must turn unto God in covenant, as our God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Nor without the mighty power of God the Spirit, can we do this. He must turn us from darkness to light, from sin to holiness, from earthfrom hell to heaven; he must bring us unto Jesus, and leave us with him, and enable us to build our eternal hopes upon him. Let us consider, secondly, the encouragement we have to turn unto God. He is gracious and merciful; Jesus is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace of truth. All degrees, all kinds of grace, for all purposes, and at all times, are to be found in Jesus; all fulness is in him, to be received by us as we need it, grace to pardon, to purify, to justify, to save, to comfort, to glorify us. A most astonishing proof of his grace he gave, when, although "he was rich, for our sake he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." In this was manifested the love of God the Son, that he laid down his life for us; and God the Father" so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." Nor is the gift of the promised Spirit an inconsiderable blessing, but an amazing gift; and in addition to this, we have the promise of eternal life after death. What an encouragement, then, to a poor sinner to come to Jesus! to rely upon him, to cast his anchor within the veil ! The mercy of the Lord to such is from everlasting to everlasting unto them that fear him; his mercy is unbounded; he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should come to repentance; he is slow to anger, and of great kindness. Whenever the sinner returns unto him in faith, he lets go all his wrath, and forgets all his anger; he receives him graciously, he loves him freely, he says unto the soul, I am thy salvation; the sinner is enabled to sing that most animating song recorded in the xiith of Isaiah, "In that day, O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me." The kindness of the Lord is exceeding great, the law of kindness was in his mouth when he was here upon earth, grace was poured into his lips; nor has he lost the least of his kindness now he is in heaven. He is still touched with the feeling of our infirmities; in all our afflictions he is himself afflicted, his nature is love, his bowels are compassion, he repenteth him of the evil; he never indeed changes his mind, but he often alters his mode of conduct, he deals very differently towards the rebellious sinner and the returning penitent. Let us then take encouragement from these considerations to return unto him, to humble ourselves before him, to make the care of our souls the one thing needful. Let us learn our duty in the present times. And what is it? Deep humiliation before God. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God; and in due time he will lift you up. Confess your personal transgressions, your national guilt, your complicated iniquities, confess them heartily, renounce them unreservedly, and come out from among the wicked decidedly : touch not the unclean thing. Are you a true believer? Your duty is, to intercede unceasingly for this rebellious land, it will be in answer to your prayers, that the blow of everlasting wrath will be averted, that guilty sinners will be rescued from devouring fire. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Pray for the nation, pray for yourselves, that you may be kept unspotted from the world, that every thing that would in any degree obstruct the full victory of grace in you may be removed, that every root of bitterness may be eradicated, that your walk with God in Christ may be uninterrupted, that truly your fellowship may be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; that every trial you meet with from with out, every conflict you sustain from within, may in some way or other promote your more abundant communion with Jesus, a deeper acquaintance with him, more ardent longings for the full enjoyment of him, until that blissful period comes, when you shall exchange all the miseries of earth, for the glories of heaven. But am I addressing any hardened sinner, who laughs at the shaking of the spear of divine indignation, and counts the darts of the law as stubble? What must be said to such? Except you repent, you must inevitably perish; the word has past the court of heaven, like the law of the Medes and Persians it altereth not. Upon the ungodly, God will rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, this shall be the portion of their cup, their damnation slumbereth not. Be persuaded then, sinner, to escape for thy life unto Jesus, hasten to Calvary, seek the full pardon of all your sins through his most precious blood and allsufficient righteousness; flee to him for refuge, and all shall be well for evermore. Most merciful Father, who art infinite in goodness, omnipotent in power, and boundless in love, shower down upon us the blessings of grace, and fit us for the fulness of glory; sanctify us wholly, body, soul, and spirit, and bring us in thine own good time to the bliss above, that with all thy redeemed people, we may cast our crowns before the throne, and join in that triumphant anthem, "worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood." To whom with Thee O Father, and Thee O Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. R. L. |