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world, we bring before you cheering truths concerning Christ's love and care and pity, truths which will operate like an enchantment in dispelling the cares of life, and calming the anxious perturbations of conscience."*

Lastly, pray for us. Let your hearts and your voices be constantly lifted up in supplication at the throne of grace for the preachers of God's word. If you knew our peril, you would pity us for our indecision, and our fearfulness; you would pray for us earnestly and unceasingly. With the revelation of God's will full before us-with the vows of God's ministry pressing upon us—the souls of men perishing around us the unseen powers of hell warring against us-the sentence of our own condemnation, if we are found faithless, hanging over us― Ah! who is sufficient for an office like ours? who indeed, that is not wholly given to it? who, that is not upheld by God Himself? God forbid then that I should trifle with a season like this present hour! But if I were so weak and so wicked as to let you slumber in the death-sleep of ungodliness or sin, how would it profit you at the last day? The Judge will still appear, the books will still be opened, the sentence will still be pronounced, the hireling shepherd will still be summoned to render up his

Cecil's Remains.

account, the counsel and purpose of God will stand either in the salvation or the damnation of every one now present. Wherefore, the trumpet may, or may not give an uncertain soundwe may or may not lift up our voice of warning, to bid you prepare for the battle-but one thing is certain, that day is near at hand when the archangel's trumpet shall be blown, when a world shall start forth at the sound, and when the awful summons shall not only be given, but obeyed: "Prepare to meet thy God."

O great God, great King of kings! who sittest enthroned in the unapproachable glories of the highest heavens, but art gently and graciously condescending to the weakest and the vilest of Thy poor repentant creatures! look down upon us who now plead the blood and righteousness of our crucified Lord, and give unto Thy ministers grace to preach faithfully Thy glorious gospel, and give unto every hearer grace to receive the same, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

SERMON XX.

66 HE FIRST FINDETH HIS OWN BROTHER."

1 JOHN 41.

"He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus.”

WHEN Our blessed Lord tells us, that He *", came not to send peace, but a sword upon earth, and that He is come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-inlaw, and that a man's foes should be those of his own household," He does not tell us of what ought to be, but of what is the result of His coming, not of the proper effect of the gospel, but of its perversion. Had the light shined in light, it could not have been said, as it has been, of the light shining in darkness, that it was not comprehended. Had the song of the heavenly host

*See Matthew x.

HE FIRST FINDETH HIS OWN BROTHER. 329

when the holy child Jesus was born on earth, been echoed back by the hearts of holy creatures; then "Glory to God in the highest, and Peace on earth, and Good-will towards men," would have been the immediate effect of the coming of the Lord's Christ.

We are told in this very chapter that Jesus Christ 66 came unto His own, and His own received Him not," but it is added, "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God." Some, therefore, did receive Him. He was not despised and rejected by every one of the lost and wretched race to whom He came. Here and there an individual might be found "waiting for the consolation of Israel :" Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth among the families of the priests; Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea among the Pharisees; Matthew and Zaccheus, among the publicans; Simeon also, and Anna; Joseph and Mary; Lazarus and his sisters; John and James and Peter and some other fishermen- —a few of all ranks and all parties received Him and followed Him. Whom He would He called, and they came unto Him. Thus we find Him saying, * No can come to Me, except My Father which hath sent Me, draw him." And we learn from this, not only His sovereignty, but the necessity of a humble

*John vi. 44.

willingness on our part to receive Him, for He says afterwards to those whom He had called; "There are some of you that believe not, wherefore I said unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of my Father." We learn from this holy doctrine, that no man can turn to God, who is not turned by the grace of God; and at the same time, that no man is turned by the grace of God, who is not made by the same grace, willing on his own part to turn to God. And here I would observe that such subjects as these are only to be spoken of with deep reverence, and that the best language to be used in treating of them, is that in which they are set before us in the word of God. Receive them we must if we receive the Holy Bible, for they are part of its revealed wisdom; but if there is any dimness where the things of God are concerned, it must be in our own eye-sight, not in the Sun of Righteousness whose bright beams are the light and the life to all who turn to Him. It has been well said, that "when an awakened sinner is willing to come to Christ, if he finds the doctrines of the divine decrees too dazzling for his feeble eyes, he should look off from them to the general invitations and promises of the gospel; but when he can bear to look at the former, he may find in them, the source and reason of

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