get as near home, and God, and holiness as possible, and as far out of the sin, and the strangeness, and the unfriendliness. And what happened to Him was just in far greater measure what I have tried to describe as happening to yourself in this strange, lonely, unfriendly world. When that centurion spoke those words of splendid faith, it was as if the angel Gabriel stood at His side. It was as if a door opened in heaven, and a burst of heaven's sunlight flooded Him, and a gust of heaven's matchless music filled His sad and lonely soul. He heard the language and tone of heaven. Not Gabriel at the throne could have paid a more splendid tribute to the essential Godhead and divinity of that Man of Nazareth than did the centurion of Rome. It was grand. And the Son of God could not keep back His glad surprise. "I tell you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."

Have I not said, to-night-let me repeat it again-that He is the same Saviour still? Oh, men and women, let us make Him glad to-night! Let us go on this centurion's feet. Remember what you know as an accomplished fact, which, as yet, the centurion did not know. Let us for once in a while, instead of quibbling, and murmuring, and faultfinding, and barely believing anything about the blessed Saviour from the cradle to the Cross and the glory, stand up to-night and recite in His ears what we do believe. Tell Him with your own heart; tell Him with your own tongue. Say it again and again, until the unbelief within shall be throttled, and muzzled, and choked with the emphasis of that faith. "Lord, I believe. I do believe; and when I grumbled, or complained, or seemed to say that I did not believe, it was not I. Forgive me; it was the devil in me." Say it to Him. He deserves it by this time-does He not?

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We say that we are going to make heaven ring with our loud acclaim of praise to His name. Is it not time that we were practising down here, for the man who has not got this faith on earth will make a rather timber-tuned singer up yonder. He will not get into the choir, in fact. There are no cracked voices going to get in yonder. It is time we were beginning to stand up before Him, and say, Lord, there Thou art, a baby in a cradle, and I believe. that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. There Thou art, a man going about the roadsides of Nazareth, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead; and I believe." Look at Him again, on the Cross, pinned by those dear hands and feet; and stand before Him, and say, 'Lord, Thou art there, and I believe in Thee there. The world put Thee there, and said that Thou wast an impostor and the offscouring of all things. Lamb of God, I never believed in Thee so much, nor felt my heart so drawn to Thee as there." Make Him glad. Say, "Lord, I believe." His heart is thirsting yet for that cordial. See, every hour what He wants is faith. That is what drew Him to the centurion. That is what drew the centurion to Him. Deep called unto deep that day.

"And he was healed." So says the narrative. When they went they found his servant whole that had been sick. Christ spoke the word, and it was done. He is the same Saviour yet. Mother, try it this way. You have not a slave, not a servant, but a son, or a daughter, and that one is not beside you, but away in Africa, or in India, miles away from you. Could you rise to this simple, this sublime, this Christ-glorifying notion, that if you just sat there and said to Him with all your heart, "Lord, my son is away from me. Lord, my daughter is going down the giddy

dance of death. My children are sick with an awful sickness, a mortal sickness, that seems as if it would soon cut them off; and they are away from me, separated by weary leagues of land and sea: but, Lord, I believe. Speak Thou the word only, and my son, my daughter, shall yet be saved. I shall not ask to see. I shall be content to wait till the eternal morning. Speak the word only." I am authorized in Christ's name to say that as surely as you do this, according to your faith so it shall be done to you: and the eternal morning shall declare that, when you sat in that pew and believed on Christ to save your dying child, ten thousand miles away, He in mercy sent His word and healed him.

Dost thou believe? It comes back to that, for without faith Christ's arm does not, will not move. Only believe. For ourselves, for those whom we call friends, for those who are dear to us, let us come straight into the light of Christ's blessed, homely, heavenly face, and say, "Lord, I believe. I can trust Thee for anything. I believe that Thou canst ́ do anything." And He will answer and say, "Yes, and your faith, even in its highest soarings, is not fantastic, is not exaggerated, is not anything of rhapsody. All things are possible to him that believeth."

Henderson & Spalding, General Printers, Marylebone Lane, London, W.

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thi

THE CALLING OF MATTHEW.

A Sermon

PREACHED AT REGENT SQUARE CHURCH,

ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1890, BY THE

REV. JOHN MCNEILL.

"And Jesus went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi (Matthew), sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow Me."LUKE V. 27.

BEFORE beginning to preach, my dear friends, let me say how thankful I am once more to be back among you. I thank you, and God over you, for the rest and invigoration of body and soul which I have received in the vacation kindly given me. Whatever Regent Square may be, or may not be, you have most enlightened views about a minister's holiday. I wish that all my brethren were as well circumstanced as I am in that particular. I feel, however, that I cannot today requite you for your kindness by preaching as I should like; and you naturally expect when a man is rusticating he is apt to be also a little rusty, and I feel I have a little lost the set of the tools. I puzzled myself a great deal as to where I should get an opening made in the old Book for the resuming of my ministry among you; and I thought, "Well, there is always one door standing open, namely, that of giving the Gospel call." I have taken this subject because it sets me upon calling somebody to Christ Jesus. The saints may not be greatly edified; but they can "take Vol. II.-No. 20.

it out" in prayer while I preach, and find refreshment there. Pray that some soul among us may receive the gracious call this morning, and that the resumption of my ministry may thus have the Lord's seal set upon it in the most blessed of all ways.

Now to our subject: The call of Matthew (Levi). "And after these things Jesus went forth." Here is what we have in our Shorter Catechism on "Effectual Calling" ;"What is Effectual Calling?" "Effectual Calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the Gospel." When you were lads and lasses, you remember, perhaps, how you shed not a few tears over getting up all that long answer. Now, here is "Effectual Calling," not in Biblical definition, but illustrated for us in actual life; in vivid, moving, dramatic form. All that is wrapped in that accurate, Biblical definition of Effectual Calling is here, in germ, at any rate, experienced in the case of Levi. these things Jesus went forth." He was always going. No wonder He said to His disciples, "Go ye," for when He was here He was always "on the go" Himself. He was not a recluse; He was not a man who shut Himself in, and looked at the world through His study windows, or buried His head among books; He was ever out and about. Now He was at the lake shore, and now in the synagogue; now in the street, and again in somebody's house; but He was always on the move.

"After

When He had been doing great things, He did not pause over them, as we are so apt to do when we have well done even a little. He did them, and when all people's eyes