listened to the divine allurements, and, leaning upon Omnipotence, and trusting to His defence, hast thou learned to mount ? Thou hast yet another flight to take; that which thou hast done spiritually, must be done literally. Thou art not always to be on the wings of faith and hope, as on eagles' wings; thou hast to mount on angels' wings. And thy nest must again be shaken; the body is the nest of the soul; and it must be destroyed, ere the soul will, or can, wing its way to the worlds of light.

We see then, why God disturbs with the ills of life, those who have already obeyed His call to look upward. It is that they may obey His second call, and take a second flight. He sends his winds and rain; He makes life uncomfortable; He takes away the warm down of earthly comforts-friends and property perhaps; then He begins to pull down their tabernacles, that they may be willing and glad to leave these nests of death, to dwell in mansions in the skies.

He allures the soul to brighter worlds by brighter views; and because a dark and gloomy region lies between the world and heaven, He leaves not the soul of His turtledove to traverse it alone. "I will be with thee"-and He takes the departing spirit on His own Almighty wings, and bears it safely away, to bask forever under the bright beams of an eternal sun, even his own unclouded glory.

So would I die-and I, and I, responds every heart. Have I gained that response? then, die to sin, and live to righteousness; die to the world, and live to heaven; die to self, and live to God: and so shall ye die.

Nay-ye shall never die. The body shall die; the nest of the soul shall be taken down; but the soul shall only depart from earth to heaven, from sorrow to joy, and as it departs, sing

"I mount, I fly

O, grave! where is thy victory?

O, death! where is thy sting?"

"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victoty through

our Lord Jesus Christ."

So may we die.

SERMON VII.

"Who hath despised the day of small things ?"-ZECH. iv. 10.

THE words of our text, in their literal sense, refer to the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. The Jews were at that time captives in Babylon, their city was left unto them desolate, their temple was in ruins, and their land, strangers inhabited. But the days of their desolations were accomplished, and the decree went forth from the Sovereign of heaven and earth, that their captivity should be turned as the streams of the south, that their holy city should be restored, and that Jerusalem should again "put on her beautiful garments."

Led on by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, the remnant came again to their own land, and set forward the workmen in the house of the Lord. But it was a little band, and the means were small. They had not King Solomon's exhaustless stores of gold and silver, nor his thousands of cunning workmen; but in troublous times, in a time of weakness, poverty, and oppression, the work began. "And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, many of the Priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house; when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice." They thought it never could be finished; and

* Ezra iii. 10, 12.

if it should, it would be no way worthy to be called the temple of the Lord. "They despised the day of small things."

But what saith the Lord! do mountainous obstacles obstruct! "Who art thou, O great mountain ? " * Are the means trifling and small? "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, his hands also shall finish it."+ Are the materials despicable and mean? "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts." "Who hath despised the day of small things?" Let them not be ashamed, let them not be fearful but believing; and in the end they shall exult and rejoice.

With what singular propriety this circumstance might be applied to the Church of God in its various depressions and revivals, must be obvious. We could show We could show you the Church in ruins, in the last days of the Jewish economy; we could recapitulate the decree of heaven for her release and restoration; we could point you to our Zerubbabel, with twelve servants repairing her trenches and renewing her waste places; we could show how the work prospered in their hands, and in the hands of their successors; we could lead you up the Pisgah of prophecy, and there open before your astonished vision, a scene almost too dazzling bright for the eye of the strongest faith. The world a mighty temple; Heaven the most holy place; Jesus the great High Priest; and every human being a Priest or a Levite, sacrificing to, and praising and magnifying the God of the universe.

But we have marked out for ourselves another course. Our text is as strictly applicable to every child of God in his individual capacity, as to the temple at Jerusalem, or to the Universal Church. Believers are the temple of God.

* Zech. iv. 7.

† Zech. iv. 9.

+ Haggai ii. 9.

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"* By nature they are a temple in ruins, and grace itself will never make them in this world, what Adam the first temple was. At best we have but the tables of a broken law; every column of sacred incense is polluted with some noxious vapor; and this earthly house is the den of many unclean thoughts. At best it is with us a "day of small things." How small then must the beginning be! and yet however small, it is not to be lightly esteemed.

It is true both in nature and in grace, that small beginnings often have large endings. Trace yon noble river to its source, you will find its head in some lonely dell, in a spring so small that one might almost cover it with the sole of his foot. And in the work of grace "though the beginning be small, yet the latter end shall greatly increase."+ Yet so weak and imbecile is the mind of man, that he is ever prone to despise small things, especially where he ought to anticipate the greatest results-I mean where the work is wholly the Lord's-the work of grace in the heart. To this point I intend to direct my remarks; namely, to encourage the subject of divine grace, though it be with them a day of small things.

Our object is not to show by how small a measure of grace you may just escape the miseries of hell; but to show that the least measure of true grace is effectual to salvation. We design not to satisfy the carnal, but to comfort the feeble. With those who pervert the Scriptures, and wrest them to their own destruction, we profess to have nothing to do. Our business is with those who have a little strength, and yet cannot give the grace of God credit for what it has done