shown you by any of your fellow creatures, how much more alive should you be to the claims of this Infinite Being!

This gratitude, in the second place, is distinguishing. Your state (I wish you would remember this)—your state is to be discovered by your estimation. In a thousand things this estimation may be known by us: therefore do not pretend to be ignorant. For instance: are you afflicted as much by your trouble as you are by your sins? You are not, if you are real Christians: you may feel your trouble much, but you will feel your sin more, and more mourn over it. Then as to your anxiety-what is it? Is it for any worldly good? or is it for the light of God's countenance? Is your language, with the natural man— "What shall I eat? what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed ?" only and principally. Or with Paul, “That I may win Christ, and be found in him?" What is it that at any time will most easily and powerfully excite your gratitude? The natural man, if ever he is moved to thankfulness, (for he cannot rise higher than this principle) is so moved by a fine harvest, or a safe journey, or a prosperous voyage, or from some outward temporal good. Now, we do not mean to intimate you should overlook these, or that Christians will overlook these; but we only say, these will not principally draw forth his gratitude. He will say with the Apostle, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." He will not principally bless God that his grounds bring forth plenteously, but that he has a plenty of the means of grace, and that he is "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places:" not that he has bodily health, but that he has soul prosperity: not that he has freedom, but that he is made free indeed: not that he has treasure on earth, but that he has in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

Thirdly, this gratitude is practical. It will be so if you are sensible of that obligation which you are never able to discharge. With regard to the love of God, as well as the love of man, the language of the Apostle should be remembered: "Let us not live in word and in tongue; but in deed and in truth." David therefore says, "What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living: I will show forth all his praise." Therefore, says God, by David, "He that offereth praise, glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show my salvation." Upon which Philip Henry observes that, "though thanks-giving be good, thanks-living is much better." If a tree had a capacity, and wished to praise the husbandman, you know the only way in which it could do it would be, by the excellence and the abundance of the fruit it produced to him: "And herein," says the Saviour, "is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." Thus, according to the well-known language of the Liturgy, you should be concerned to "show forth his praise, not only with your lips, but with your lives; by giving up yourselves to his service, and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness all your days.”

For, lastly, this gratitude is to be never ending. Ah, Christians! you will soon have done-some of you especially-with many things here. You will soon have done with sorrow; you will soon have done with sin; you will soon have done with a wicked world without you, and a wicked heart within you; you will soon have done even with some parts of your Christian experiences and exercises. Faith will soon be lost in sight; hope will soon be lost in

fruition. There will be no need of patience where there is nothing to be endured, and nothing to be waited for. But as to thanksgiving and praise, though you will change your place, you will never change your employment, unless for higher and nobler strains. They that dwell in his house above, will be still praising him. And therefore, Christian, you may retire and sing alone what you have already been singing: you may say, "My waiting days, my watching days, my warring days, and my weeping days-and even my praying days, (though I have loved the throne of grace)—my praying days, too, will soon be past; but

"My days of praise shall ne'er be past
While life, or breath, or being last,

i immortality endures."

329

THE FOUNDATION OF THE BELIEVER'S HOPE, AND THE COMPASS OF HIS PRIVILEGES.

REV. S. ROBINS, A.M.

PORTMAN CHAPEL, BAKER Street, SEPTEMBER 28, 1834 *.

"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." ACTS, xx. 32.

It was one of the most interesting occasions, one of the most interesting eras in the Apostle's whole ministerial life, when from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called together the elders of the Churches. We may suppose, with some very learned and very wise commentators, that the whole Church was included; that they came with their officers; and that the Apostle addressed them together.

He first appeals to his own manner of life amongst them: "Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations which befel me by the lying in wait of the Jews." So that he was preaching to them, not only by the power and eloquence of the Word wherewith God had gifted him, but he was preaching to them by the still more efficacious eloquence of a holy, consistent, and devout life. He testifies of the faithfulness of his preaching: "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you." And again, he calls them as his witnesses: "I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." So that you see, he did not cater to their prejudices; he did not pare away, he did not explain away the offensive doctrines of the Gospel, but he ministered unto them that which the Lord Jesus had committed to his hands.

Then he gives them a word of exhortation: "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." If there be a matter, which would be bound with more especial interest upon the heart of a departing minister, it would be the consideration of the hands into which his flock should fall; and he would desire to commit this to them, as a matter to be bound upon their consciences, and for which they shall answer at the great day: that he should minister to his poor flock in the wilderness, of the same food which they have been accustomed to receive.

* Farewell Sermon, as Evening Lecturer.

These were times of great peril; he adds, "I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.". And so it is in our own times, the enemies of the Church of Christ, are they of her own household. Well, therefore, might I add to you, dear brethren, the closing admonition, "Therefore watch;" let each one walk warily, lest he be turned aside from the simplicity of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he commits them unto one mighty Keeper: in the words of the text, he commends them "unto God, and to the word of his grace, which was able to build them up, and give them an inheritance among all them which were sanctified."

Now we think that these words may not be altogether unsuitable to the specialty of the occasion of our gathering ourselves together this night. The ministry of Paul had been greatly blessed among the Ephesians: he found them sunk into the debasing depths of idolatrous worship: they were bowing down -high-minded creatures as they believed themselves, in their metropolis of luxury and knowledge-to the works of their own hands. And Paul preached Jesus Christ to them. And though at first they would have silenced him with their senseless yells, in praise of their own goddess, yet, ere Paul left them, he had the satisfaction of building up a Church: for he points to those who were once without God, without Christ, without hope in the world, aliens from the covenant of promise, outcasts, hopelessly wretched, brought to the enjoyment of the citizenship of God's spiritual Israel. And so, dear friends, might we hope, in closing our ministry amongst you, that there are some, at least, to whom this matter shall come with a speciality of application—that there are some, at least, among you, who have cast down your idols, and are no more rendering them your service, and your heart's affection; who have been brought within the compass of the holy city; who are now the people of the Lord; who are bound unto Him, who is the great head of the Church.

Now, in choosing this as our parting topic, there are two points which I would desire especially to bring before you. In the first place, I would speak to you of the foundation of the believer's hope-" God and the word of his grace:" and, in the second place, of the compass of the believer's privilegespresent edification, and future glory.

Now, as to the first head of our discourse, THE FOUNDATION OF THE BELIEVER'S HOPE-"God and the word of his grace." No truth can be more palpable, or more undeniable, than that all creation is dependant upon God. He openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness. If he were to withhold his care, or to cause his bounty to cease, even for one hour, there would be desolation and death spread through all the provinces of God's creation. There is not that spot, dim and distant in its unconceived remoteness, but there is a constant dependance upon God; and there walks not on this, his wide territory, one single creature, who can arrogate to himself that he is independent of the hand that formed him. There is not one, forming even the remotest link in the chain of animate nature, which exists, from moment to moment, but by the supplies that are ministered by Him, who at first gave existence. So that if God were for one moment to lift off his sleepless eye; if

he were for one instant to turn aside his ministering hand-then would there be a stillness and destruction through all his wide domain.

Now it is, indeed, a matter of most blessed contemplation to the unfallen ones, to the elect angels which are around the throne of God-to those who have been brought back out of their sinful state, and are united to him-it is to them a subject of blessed consolation, to see how there is an entire dependance upon God. And ere sin came into the universe; ere the defiling step came into Paradise; ere the trail of the serpent was over all, it was fair, and beautiful, and holy. Then it was to man, also, a subject of delightful contemplation; for the whole creation, in the midst of which he dwelt, was as one outspread mirror, wherein the character of God was reflected: he saw his goodness; he saw his power; he saw his wisdom-the wisdom that had contrived, and the resistless power that bad executed, and the goodness which was ever sustaining. And when man dwelt in the midst of all creation, the brightest and the best; and when her bounties were profusely poured out at his feet; and when his path was, as it were, heaped up with the benevolence of his God; it was his very joy to render up the loyalty, and the obedience, and the undivided affection of his heart, to one whose character was so consonant with his own. For, you mark, that ere sin came to defile and to deform, man was the very transcript of his Maker; and there was impressed upon him, as from a clear, and exact, and precise mould, that which the Lord himself was: it was, so to speak, Deity which took in the earthly image; it was the manifestation of God in the sight of an admiring creation.

But when sin came, when there was apostacy in this world, there could no longer be any satisfaction in contemplating this dependance upon God; for then all the attributes were included together to crush and to destroy; then, wisdom, and power, and goodness, might shine forth in all their brightness, and in all their beauty, for those who had never transgressed; but man—ruined and wretched man-could find no joy in their aspect. And then it came to pass, that the only comfort that there could be for the ruined heart, was to see God as the God of grace. Now of this nature could tell nothing; of this Providence could tell absolutely nothing. Man might pore upon the page of the one, and on the page of the other, but he could learn nothing to bring comfort to his desolate heart. He might see what God had formed in the building of the world around him, and how God was sustaining them; but they could not tell him one word of the power of restoration: he would not see in this outspread universe, around him or beneath him, aught that would bring consolation to his sin-burdened soul. This was a matter of pure revelation; it was not by any exercise of a mighty and profound intellect; it was not by the going forth into the depths of nature's laboratory, that man could fetch forth the knowledge of that which he was to be in his restored condition: it was a voice from another world, a voice from God himself, which was to tell him that there was grace, and that there was peace and hope for the redeemed and pardoned soul. But on the page of his own blessed Book, upon the page of his own blessed Biblehis gift, his grateful gift to man-we read what grace has done; so that the whole Bible teems with this one topic. And the ministers of Christ, who go forth, fetching in their stores from that his own book, will take this as their one unfailing subject. It is indeed the very epitome of the Divine character; it is