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Gospel, with all its provisions, for fifteen years in Otaheite, and not one soul was converted by the preaching of the Gospel, as was known to the missionaries during that time. But the day of Christ's power was to come: lo, a nation, as it were, was born in a day: a revival took place; God came down, dispersed all the mists of darkness, and pointed the sinners' conscience to the salvation. "He must increase:" not only his kingdom shall come; but he must increase: "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:" he "will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, and all flesh shall see the salvation of our God." If we had been entirely defeated in this cause, defeat in this would be better than success in any other. But we are not defeated. It is true that now and then, a little drop of divine influence descends on the congregation, and our brother is pricked to the heart; and our sister feels the power of the truth; and our mother is awakened to seriousness; and our father comes home with conviction on his conscience; and our neighbour is alarmed for his state. But presently a greater work than this shall be seen when the Spirit of God shall be poured out from on high, then numbers shall wake and cry out, "What must we do to be saved?" Brethren, your heavenly Leader has gone up before you he has taken all the principal places, all the forts and towers of the enemy; and he bids "Follow me:" he says, "There is much land yet to be possessed;" and he calls on you, and says, "Why are ye slack to go and partake of this land; why are ye slack? Why do ye not go up and plant the standard of the cross upon the soil, and claim it for me?" Why, because our hearts are cold; and because our souls do not listen to the glorious tidings of the conquests of that Saviour, which are now to be presented upon the earth.

you,

Dear hearers, when you think, then, that success is certain, that every guinea you give to the cause of God, shall be, as it were, a seed dropped-the very mite given into the treasury, shall go towards furnishing the Gospel of God to the poor and the miserable among your own countrymen-whilst you think Christ has bound himself by oath and promise, to bless every effort made; let this stimulate you again to renew your efforts, again to desire that the glory of the Lord may be revealed, that all your kindred may see his Gospel.

Finally, brethren, let us furnish this Gospel to our countrymen, for our opportunities are vanishing. Time is hastening on; health is inconstant; the fashion of the world passeth away. This, this is the only time we can use our strength, and talents, and time, and money. Give, therefore, this evening, as if this were the last act of your lives; as if you were about to stand at the bar of Jesus Christ, and to be judged for the deeds done in the body. Let the truths that you have heard impress your mind: and now, at the cry of this one hundred and sixty thousand who are annually dying, and of the five millions who are without the Gospel, and the four hundred and fifty daily who are waking in eternity without God and without hope; now, while their cry is ringing in your ears, and while the Spirit of God is speaking through his word, now arm yourselves against all selfishness, and against all covetousness, and let the love of Christ take an entire hold of your spirit, while you say,

"Awake, my dormant zeal; for ever flame

With generous ardour for immortal souls:

And thou my head, and heart, and hands, and all,
Spend and be spent in service so divine."

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL.

REV. F. CLOSE, A.M.

ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, MAY 14, 1835*.

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil."-PSALM lxviii. 11, 12.

THE Occasion upon which this psalm was penned was one of deep interest in the history of Israel. The pious king and prophet was about to carry up to the favoured city the ark of the covenant of his God. It was the gathering of the clans of Israel; it was the assembling of their different tribes: "There was little Benjamin, with their ruler, and the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali." There were gathered together as we learn from the books of Samuel and Chronicles-eight hundred and sixty Levites singing the praises of God. There, too, were the virgins of Israel in their companies, celebrating the praises of Jehovah : "Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels." There, too, went the great point of attraction, the ark, the mystic ark, the token of the Divine presence, upon which was the mercy-seat, the type of our redemption: and there the shekinah, the divine presence, glorious in the eyes of God's people, the most interesting object, at least to the spiritual eye, (though indeed it was despicable in the eye of a carnal woman)-there was Zion's lowly King, having laid aside his royal apparel, clad in the sacred vest, a linen ephod. He takes his harp, and, with a holy enthusiasm and pious ecstasy, he sings the praises of Jehovah, and dances before the ark of the Lord. Then the whole multitude strike up their national anthem, and exclaim, "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. It is well seen, O God, how thou goest; how thou, my God and King, goest in the sanctuary."

This is the literal interpretation of the psalm, the primary interpretation: but if you would understand its prophetic import, you must figure to yourselves a very different scene. You must conceive that a thousand years have rolled by: and now, behold, from one of the gates of the holy city there issues forth a lonely and mysterious man, accompanied indeed with a few despised followers. No royal princes there: the sceptre had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet. No pompous priesthood there: there might be a ruler, a Nicodemus, a centurion; there might be two or three favoured friends, besides the immediate disciples of our Lord. He takes them forth, and he leads them a little space from the city, unto Bethany: there he stretches forth his * Anniversary Sermon for the London Missionary Society.

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hands, and blesses them and it comes to pass that, as he blesses them, he is parted from them, and carried up into heaven, and a cloud receives him out of their sight. "Thou hast ascended on high," says my psalm; "thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. By the interpretation of the inspired Apostle, who quotes this very passage in the epistle to the Ephesians, you are taught that this psalm is but a Gospel hymn; that the word which the Lord spake was but the testimony of his will; that the enemies spoken of are the world, the flesh, and the devil; that the triumphs are the triumphs of Jesus in the preaching of his cross.

You learn from my text some most important truths relative to our belief in this word, and to the precious promises of God concerning it. How is it we are to understand the words of the text? "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil." In dependence upon the only and sufficient Teacher-looking up to Him who alone can give me power to speak, and you ears and hearts to hear-I shall endeavour to shew you from the words of my text these four points: first, that the Gospel is to be proclaimed; secondly, that it never will be proclaimed till the Lord gives the word; thirdly, that when it is so proclaimed, great shall be the conquests thereof; and lastly, the consolatory assurance, that those who promote its proclamation shall divide the spoil, though they tarry at home.

First, then, we learn from my text what may appear, at first sight, a simple proposition, but one that carries deep interest to every one of us; namely— THAT EVER SINCE MAN FELL, IT HAS BEEN THE WILL OF GOD THAT BY

MAN THE MESSAGE OF MERCY SHOULD BE PROCLAIMED.

Thus it was of old: Enoch, and Noah, and Moses, were preachers of righteousness. It has been so in the generations that have succeeded: God has never deviated from his plan. This blessed Book itself-what is it? The writing of men: every letter of it was written by man; for "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It is the economy of divine grace: angels long to do, beloved, what I am doing now; angels long to do what many of you, I trust, are doing continually-to tell sinners of a Saviour: but they must not; it is not the will of God. You know that in the opening of the dispensation, even in the period of miracle, of vision, of revelation, angels were not permitted to preach the Gospel. Cornelius, the centurion, had a visit from an angel, who was sent to assure him of the divine favour: but was he permitted to preach the Gospel to him? No; an angel appeared in his house, and stood and said, "Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and thy house mayest be saved." Why might not the angel have cut the matter short, and told him how he might be saved? It was not the will of God; it was not the economy of divine grace. Nay, more than this; we learn from Scripture story, that this message of divine love has not only been proclaimed by men, but often by those particular men that we should have thought the least fit for the work: men who shrunk from it from a sense of their own inconsistencies. Thus you know how Moses shrunk from the work, and how he said, "O Lord, thou knowest I

am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue:" and not until after many assurances, positive commands, and even reproaches, was Moses stirred up to go and tell the word of the Lord to his people. So Isaiah, too, he shrunk from the work, and called himself " a man of unclean lips :" and Jeremiah; "Then said I, Ah Lord God! I am a child."

Thus you see, that in many instances (they might be multiplied) God has been pleased to select the very persons who were in their natural capacities, and according to their natural talents, least fitted for the work. We must go a step further, and say, it has pleased God that the Gospel should often be preached, and preached most eminently, by eminent sinners. Who preached like the Psalmist David, or who sinned like him? Who preached like Paul, and who persecuted like Saul? Who preached like Peter, and who denied his Lord with curses and with oaths too? The truth cannot be denied, that God has sometimes, nay ofttimes, been pleased to pluck an eminent brand from the burning, and to make him an eminent minister of righteousness. And wherefore this, beloved brethren, wherefore this? It were enough to say, God has willed it; and let every rebellious thought be stilled. We are sure it is right and good, for it is the will of our Father. But there are two obvious reasons for which this economy was devised by the Almighty and all-wise God. These were the objects he had in view-one was, mercy to man, and the other was, the glory of his great name.

I say it was mercy to man. Angels could not preach as sinners can. Angels could not tell of redemption as redeemed sinners can: they could not sympathize with us; they could not enter into our feelings. Suppose it possible that a sin-burdened soul went and told to some pure spirit from the throne of God, all the corruptions that arise in his heart, all the struggles and conflicts of his indwelling sin; that pure spirit would start back with abhorrence from him; he could not enter into his feelings: but sinners can tell, and only they; and sinners can feel for sinners, and only they. Thus you remember that David, on the occasion to which I have alluded, when he was pouring out his soul in penitential sorrow, pleaded this very thing: when asking for pardon, and for mercy, and for grace, he says, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." Go see, again, the fallen Peter; "he went out and wept bitterly." Was he not then learning to feel for sinners? Was he not then learning sympathy, and tenderness, and gentleness, and kindness? Our Lord tells us it was so; before his fall it was that Jesus said unto him, "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." See the wisdom and the compassion of God. Think you that Paul would ever have been able to tell as he does, of righteousness and of unrighteousness; to tell as he does of the working of the law, and of its effects on the human heart, if he had not been a persecutor of God's Church and people? It is out of mercy to man that God is pleased to fit such instruments for his work and for his glory.

The other point which I suggested was the object of the divine mind, in thus appointing sinners to proclaim to sinners the word of salvation: it was for the glory of his own great name. It was to shew, that it was "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." It was that the

instrument might be levelled and laid low in the dust, and that the efficacy and the power might be known to be of God. Beloved brethren, I address many this night who are often in the habit of preaching the everlasting Gospel. I appeal to you look into your own hearts; study the feelings of your own bosoms; look into them when you are engaged in the most holy exercises, and tell me if you are not often ashamed of yourselves, ashamed that such unworthy motives, such corrupt desires, such pride, such vanity, such selfishness, should be found stirring in that sinner's bosom, when he is trying to plead his Master's cause? Are you not constrained to allow, that you are amazed that God should make you and me the instruments of grace and of salvation to sinners? Look, too, at those who are engaged in the blessed work which has brought us together this evening. Look at the different sections of the Christian world; look at your different denominations, your different societies, your different committees: is there nothing to humble us in them? Is there nothing to make us feel amazed that the Lord our God should by such instruments accomplish a work so mighty? All this, beloved brethren, is to shew that he has committed this treasure, as the Apostle Paul says, "to earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us."

But, secondly, we may learn from our text, that THIS WORD WILL NEVER BE PROCLAIMED, EXCEPT THE LORD SEND US. It was "when the Lord gave the word," then "the company of preachers was great."

If you look again at those several cases to which I alluded, you will find, that none of those holy men would ever have spoken a word for the Lord, if he had not sent them. It was his might and his power that overshadowed them ; it was his grace and spirit that dragged the reluctant Moses from the mountain, and from feeding his sheep, to go on the arduous embassy of delivering the Lord's people from Egypt. It was the power of God's Spirit that dragged Jonah, the fugitive prophet, from the hold of the vessel, wherein he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, and that compelled him to go and preach mercy to Nineveh. It was the might and power of God's grace that pardoned and restored, and poured the balm of consolation into the broken heart of David, and enabled him to tell, in so many sweet lines, of the mercy of his God. It was the same hand of God that was laid on Saul of Tarsus, that struck him to the ground, and told him to go and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. And so it is now no man ever went to preach indeed who was not sent of God. I scruple not to say, that man may send, and send in vain; that by whatever outward form a man may be devoted to the work of the ministry, whether he be called by the presbytery, whether he be appointed by a congregation, or whether he receive episcopal ordination, except that man be moved by the Holy Ghost to take that office upon him, he will be but a "dumb dog that cannot bark;" he will be but a "hireling, who will flee when the wolf cometh.", 0 that we could settle our minds on these great broad principles of Gospel truth! It would tend much to heal our divisions, to humble us all. Addressing, as I doubtless am this night, many of different denominations of Christians, I would say, Look into your own hearts; look into your own churches; and those that are without sin amongst us, let them cast the first stone at their brethren. Rather, I would say, let us all humble ourselves before God, for our

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