WAITING THE DAY OF GOD'S POWER.

THE day of God's power has already come. In Psalm cx., David speaks prophetically of the Saviour's consecration to the priestly office, and his exaltation to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and in relation to these facts of the Redeemer's advent, he says, 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.' It is, therefore, manifest that the day of power, thus foretold, dawned with the public proclamation of these other glori ous events here predicted concerning the Messiah. We see, therefore, that the day of God's power has already come, and this being the case, it follows that you, dear reader, have not to wait for it. For why should you wait for that which has arrived? 'What a man seeth, why

doth he yet hope for?'

But what do you imagine the day of God's power signifies? What do you expect it to be? What do you hope to realize that you may not now experience?

Is there

anything connected with your salvation in which the power of God is wanting now? Is God not now putting forth his saving power on behalf of lost humanity? What is the gospel but this? What says Paul relative to it in Rom. i. 16? I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' Here, reader, is God's power-his saving power held out to you. Do you yield to it? Do you give yourself over in faith to be saved by it? Mark you, it is declared to be God's power to save every one that believes. Do you then believe, or do you not? We beseech you to consider that it does not profess to exercise its saving power over the unbeliever. Listen to 1 Pet. i. 3-5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God, THROUGH FAITH

unto salvation.' The facts of the case then are these, the saving power of God is embodied in the gospel, and is exercised unto the salvation of all who believe it. Now then, dear friend, it is for you to take heed to this, and to yield by faith to this manifestation of the power of God, and not to wait in expectation of another day of power.

You may answer, that the gospel of God's favour, and the day of opportunity lengthened out to you that you may receive the glad tidings, are not what you are waiting for-that you are waiting for another manifestation and another day of power than the gospel gives you. But we ask you why you are waiting for another manifestation and another day of power? We do not dispute that you are waiting, but we affirm that you are wrong in waiting. See, dear reader, if you can satisfy yourself that you are right in waiting for such things? What reason have you to expect them? Are they promised you? Is the present not the day of God's power to save you? Is he not at this moment infinitely willing, able, and ready to forgive all your iniquities, and receive you into his fellowship through the mediatorship of his dear Son? He is; and for you to refuse the offices of his love, and wisdom, and power as they are manifested in the Saviour, is neither more nor less than to reject Christ, and the divine power to save through him, in the vain hope that God will join you in this infatuated course, and devise another plan of salvation than that wrought out in the Redeemer!

It is no use for you to say that you do not intend rejecting the Saviour or the day of his power to save, but that you only wait for another day of God's power. We tell you again, dear reader, that the present is the day of God's saving power, and that Jesus, as revealed to you in the gospel, is his power to save you; and that you wait in vain for an addition to these. Remember that you are now aware that the present is the day of the Lord's power unto salvation. Remember, that by your continuing unwilling, you are excluding yourself from the people of the Lord, of whom it was said, 'Thy people shall be will ing in the day of thy power.' And remember, finally, that the only day of God's power yet to come is a day, not of

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salvation, but of wrath, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.'

WAITING FOR GOD'S DRAWING.

IT is not less true that God draws the sinner to the Saviour, than it is that he sent his Son to be the Saviour of the sinner. If God be the Creator of the universe entire, it follows that he is the Creator of every part of it. And if God be the Author of salvation as one grand system, he is not less the author of its various parts. It cannot be denied, that the bringing of the sinner to the Saviour is so necessary a part of the economy of salvation, that had it been omitted in the scheme of mercy, the omission would have rendered it essentially defective. But though this did not appear so evidently requisite as it does, the words of the Saviour, as recorded in John vi. 44, 'No man can come unto me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him,' must have rendered it evident that God is alike the author of the Saviour's mission to man, and of leading the sinner to the Saviour.

We wish you, then, dear reader, to understand that you are not mistaken in supposing that God draws the sinner to Jesus. We wish you to apprehend distinctly that you, as a sinner, are drawn to the Saviour by God, if you are brought to him at all. But at the same time we wish you to understand, that you are not required to wAIT on God's drawing. Your mistake lies not in supposing that God draws you, but in the idea that you require to wait for him to do so. Our endeavour must be to show you that you are not to wait BUT TO LEARN, in order to be drawn of the Father to Jesus. Attend, then, if you please, to the

following principles on which God is-according both to his word and to human experience-conducting the drawing of sinners to his Son.

First, we have to notice that God proceeds in this matter as on all others connected with man, on principles accordant with our nature, and, therefore, best suited to accomplish the end desired. This thought we find in Hosea xi. 4: 'I drew them with cords of a man.' That is, by cords with which a man can be drawn. Not mere brute force, or physical force, but means corresponding to the nature of man as a rational and a spiritual being.

Second, we have to notice that the mode of the divine drawing consists in enlightenment, instruction or teaching, The Saviour, after making the statement, that no man could come to him except he were drawn of the Father, immediately adds, 'It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.'

And Third, we have to notice that the teaching adopted by God to draw sinners to the Saviour is of the most persuasive, winning, and attractive character-namely that of love. Hos. xi. 4: 'I drew them with cords of a man; with bands of love. Jer. xxxi. 3: I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have 1 drawn thee.'

Thus, dear reader, you have before you the principles of the divine procedure in the drawing of sinners, and you have only now to learn the all-attracting lesson of love which the Father is seeking to teach you in order to come to Jesus. Now, do you ask what that lesson is, and where it is to be learned? Look, then, to Calvary. See extended on yonder cross him who said, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but-have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' Learn that lesson, dear reader, receive it into your heart by faith, and thus the Father shall have drawn you to Jesus, and

you will experience the import of the Saviour's words, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.'

You see, then, that you are not to wait for God's drawing, but that you are to learn of him the truth as it is in Jesus, and so be drawn to Christ.

WAITING FOR SPECIAL OR SAVING GRACE.

WITHOUT the special or saving grace of God, the salvation of man must have been an utter impossibility. No man ever was or can be saved but by this divine grace. We say this grace, because there is much grace manifested by God toward us that is not saving, was not intended to be so, and which cannot save. There is much grace shewn us by God in our creation and preservation-infinitely more than we ever think of; but great and manifold as the grace of God is in the favours of creation and providence, a special and altogether more glorious display of favour was necessary before we could speak of saving grace. Blessed be God, this has not been withheld!

In Titus ii. 11 we read, that 'The grace of God, that bringeth Salvation'—or the grace of God that saves- -hath appeared to all men.' If, then, we ask the question--In what has this saving grace appeared? passages almost innumerable point us to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one grand medium and manifestation of it. Take the following as examples:-Rom. iii. 24, ‘Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' Rom. v. 15, If, through the offence of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.' Rom. v. 21, That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Cor. i. 4, 'I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given