where everlasting love is the very atmosphere: that he is to be brought, where love, divine love, shall be the very element of his whole existence for ever

Now of those who are now living amongst all mankind; of the aggregated mass of human creatures that now tenant, that ever have tenanted, or that ever shall tenant, this earth, there can be but two classes-those who have an eternal interest in these things, and those whom they concern not. We can divide this thronging congregation into but these two classes; we can speak of you but as those who are servants of God, andt hose who are servants of the world, and enemies of truth. And if there be some halting between two opinions, who are afraid to come forth to the enjoyment of the light and liberty which God gives his people, and who therefore have to own, like Israel of old, they come out in a state of sin from Egypt-but they did not all enter Canaan; remember how many of them fell in the desert; how many of them left their bones to blanch in the wilderness :-now, my dear friends, we tell you, you are in the wilderness state; press forward, I pray you, for Christ's sake and your own, for establishinent in the land of promise.

Oh, my brethren, we have desired, with whatever power God may have given o us, to press upon your hearts the importance of these things. And now we have come to the close of our ministry amongst you here. You have met together this night from various dwellings: some from the sumptuous and palacelike houses, and some from the homes of pinching poverty: but to the rich and to the poor, to the great and the ignoble, we have but one message; we have but to tell you, that by nature you are sinners, defiled and ruined, and hopeless in your guilt; and unless Jesus come, with the all-cleansing power of his blood, and reconcile you to God, and take you to himself, you cannot be saved. Now we do not think it necessary to offer a single apology for the faithful speaking of days past. What though some may have called it harsh speaking; it has only been from love to you. If I saw any one of you lying upon your bed of pain, and racking agony in every limb, the lip white with anguish, and the death-damp standing upon your brow, and I knew that I could minister a remedy that should raise you up again, and give you vigour in the limb, and health in the cheek; and I was to withhold and keep back from you the knowledge of your danger, and neglect to administer the remedy, would you not say I had dealt cruelly unto you? But not so cruelly as the minister would deal with you who would keep back from you the knowledge of that disease which would bring you to everlasting death. Once again I tell you, there is the disease of sin in every unrenewed, and in every carnal and unregenerate heart; and that if it continue, it will issue in death eternal. Now it is in the tenderness of Christian love that I so speak to you: that I do love you, God, the Searcher of all hearts, is my witness. And in truth I must have a heart of stony hardness if I do not love you; for before I could forget your kindness, your undeserved affectionateness and sympathy, I must have forgotten all earthly things, and the pulse of my affection must have ceased to beat for aught that is in this world.

And therefore, when I speak to you once, and once.in this place only, where I have spoken before many times, I cannot but remember that God has blessed my ministry in this place; and that there is cause for deep thankfulness in knowing, that there are those amongst you-not one, not two, but there are many amongst you-who have borne your testimony, that the preached word in

this place, has been God's instrument for healing your souls; for snatching them out of the enemies' hands, and giving them, as a precious deposit, into the hands of Jesus; when I remember that many a one (I speak advisedly) has been brought from the slavery of sin, from serving the devil, and the vanities of the world, to live the Christian life, and present a Christian pattern to others, I cannot but deeply feel the solemnity of this occasion. I do not anticipate, I would not anticipate, the bitter sorrow of heart, of hearing that you had turned back from the way wherein. you have taken your first step; I would rather hear that your bright and blooming hope was quenched in the grave's darkness; I would rather weep over your tombs than over your apostacy.

of

Many of us, my brethren, in all probability, will never meet again in this world. Some of us, I trust, will meet beneath the roof of another sanctuary, will come together in another house of prayer, by the next Sabbath: but some you I shall perhaps never see on earth again; some of you I shall perhaps never look upon, until we meet before the great white throne, and before the presence of the Judge. Oh, my brethren, then, when the sea shall give up her dead, when from the mountains and the valleys, from the thronged city and from the lonely desert, there shall come forth a mighty multitude to be judged; when the sepulchred dust shall arise from millions of graves, and be shapen again into the ancient forms and lineaments of living men, and when this mighty stream shall rush forward to receive the sentence of joy or of sorrow, then, oh then, we must meet; and then, oh then, will come the separation at the bar of judgment.

Now conceive of the feelings on the one hand, and the feelings on the other. On the one hand there shall be hearts which beat high with the transports of anticipated joy; there shall be those whose ear already catches the sound of the song of the redeemed; those to whose refreshed and gladdened spirits, there shall float the air that breathes from the land of the blessed; whose spirits will float into regions of loveliness and light, into which imagination never soared. But there shall be another class, made up of those whose hearts are filled with fear, whose eye looks forward with despair, whose cheek is pale with anticipated vengeance. No, there will be no careless ones at that time; the terror of the wicked will be-not that the hurricane of divine wrath is rushing out upon them and the world; not that creation has arrived at its last moment-but that the Judge looks upon them that calm look; that piercing eye, that shall mark out the faithless and the fallen, the worldling and the hypocrite. Oh, then, such― and I pray God there be not such amongst you-but if there be such, then I tell you, that these efforts of mine will rise to your remembrance; these sermons you have heard from my lips will be bound upon your consciences, and they shall enhance your condemnation.

Then shall there be no sympathy of pious relatives or friends; for they shall fling off far from them every unworthy feeling, and God shall be all in all ; but it will compose, I believe, a part of the inconceivable torments of the condemned, that they shall be separated from those with whom they have associated in the converse of life; that they shall be separated from them: for they are outcasts from that world where the beloved ones are going.

It may be that nature is in her old age; it may be, that in spite of all the greenness upon earth's surface, and the tide of life which is in all its provinces,

that the shade of coming dissolution may be already cast over this world; and that the knell of its entombment shall soon be rung. We do not know whether this is the case; but of this we are quite sure, that the time for the dislocation and dissolution of the frame-work of this earthly tabernacle is not far distant. Whenever we have felt the chill of sickness sink to our heart, then was a warning that our own death-hour was not far off. Yes, the time shall come, when there shall be a stillness in your chambers, and when your relatives shall move slowly and noiselessly around you; when you shall gather from their speaking looks, that there is no hope for you, that death is at hand.

Now, dear friends, we pray you to prepare for these things. We speak to you once more; we bear once again the message of mercy to your ears; may God send it home to your hearts. "We are ambassadors for God, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God." There are amongst you those who have never cared for the Gospel of Jesus; who have been reckless, and thoughtless, and careless, living according to the fashion of this world. Oh, we beseech you, by the mercies of the Living God, that ye live not thus any longer. We come to plead God's cause with you once more: to tell you of that love, that pardoning, pitying, and redeeming love, which would embrace you in its ar.ns, and introduce you for ever to the realms of peace. Turn, then, unto Jesus; pray God to pour out his Spirit into your hearts, that the rock may be smitten, and the gracious water may flow; and that by and bye, when this world's administration shall be closed, and the records of time shall be ended, when the Archangel shall come, and when the flood of God's wrath shall rush forth; you need not fear; for on that flood there shall float the ark of the Gospel, and you shall walk through the black and troubled waters, and you shall repose in perfect safety. The tempest cannot reach you, and the water cannot overwhelm you for you shall be under the care of Jesus. Oh, may that be the experience * every soul here present.

And now, brethren, I bid you farewell. Ec strong; be good ourage; be of one mind, and live to Christ.

340

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL.

But the question is— Gospel hope to be to

"WHEN a vessel is at anchor, the sea may be dreadfully boisterous, the wind may blow, the tempest howl, and the waves heave; but if the ship be what they call sea-worthy, in a firm, stout condition, the cable sufficiently strong, and the anchor struck deep into tenacious soil beneath, though she be most terribly tost and buffeted about by the winds and the waves, yet she rides in security on the surface of the deep, the anchor is a stay to her, keeps her from driving among rocks, and striking upon quick-sands; if all be firm, and steady, and tight, she rides upon the storm, and outbraves the tempest, severe as it may be. With admirable propriety and aptness is this image made use of by the Apostle himself, in describing the actual operation and exercise of the Christian hope. The best, the most eminent, exemplary, and hopeful Christians, while they are here, in the world and in the body, find themselves by no means exempt from the common cares and evils of their fellow men; nor exempt from the peculiar tribulations of the Christian life; the struggles, the self-denials, the difficulties, the conflicts of the Christian warfare. They all find their great Lord's predic tion verified in one way or another; "In the world ye shall have tribulation :" they are in many cases, as it is Scripturally expressed, "tossed with tempests," on the uncertain, turbulent, and changeful ocean of life. In these circumstances, what do they actually find the them? what is the essential end it answers to them? Does it still the storm as with a word? does it rebuke the winds and the waves, and, as by miracle or magic, produce instantaneously a great calm, as Christ did? No, in ordinary cases, it does not; in some very extraordinary ones, perhaps, it may have done so: in florid, high-wrought descriptions from the pulpit, by young inexperienced orators, it is sometimes represented as always doing so; but this certainly is not the ordinary experience of the most serious Christians; it was not the ordinary experience even of Apostles; "Troubled on every side; persecuted; cast down, as sorrowful, as poor, as having nothing," is more frequently the language of their experience. But the ordinary operation of the Christian hope, is exactly that to the renewed mind which the anchor is to the vessel at sea; it is a stay and rest to it; it keeps the storm as it were at bay; it keeps the mind from being driven on temptation, despondency, and destruction: there is an humble, cheerful, consoling, supporting sense of security amidst all, in the promises, and consolations, and provisions of the everlasting covenant. In other words, "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keepeth the heart and mind, through Christ Jesus." It does not annihilate the cares, and conflicts, and troubles of life, nor ward off their influence altogether, but keeps the mind in some degree of security and serenity in the midst of all. Does not this just correspond with your experience, Christians? Your hope is not the actual accomplishment of every thing to you; you are not in the harbour; you have not reached the eternal shore; you have not actually entered into rest; you find yourselves at sea still; and sometimes tossed and agitated not a little; but your hope sticks by you as a fast and steady friend."-REV. T. N. TOLLER.

CONFIDENCE IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH.

REV. J. E. BEAUMONT.

NICHOLSON SQUARE CHAPEL, EDINBURGH, SEPTEMBER 7, 1834.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."—PSALM, xxiii. 4.

THE monarch of Israel had been taken from the obscurity and humbleness of a shepherd's life, to sit upon the throne of the kingdom: but he often reverted to his early condition, never being ashamed of it, never shrouding it over amid regal splendour and regal acts. The finest imagery of his fine writings, is taken, not so much from the subsequent parts of his life, his monarchical dignity, as from the early scenes of it, his shepherd life. And it is because David had this transition in his fortunes, from being a shepherd becoming a king, that no imagery, no figure is so often employed by poets, orators, and historians, in the description of the administration of any office, civil or ecclesiastical, as that of the shepherd; the administration of public affairs, whether secular or religious, is often held forth in writings, both sacred and profane, under the emblem of a shepherd's care. And there is no representation of the minister, of his duties, toils, anxieties, solicitudes, so frequent in Scripture, as that of a shepherd. Nay, our Lord Jesus Christ himself is designated a Shepherd, but the chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls-the chief Shepherd to whom all the under shepherds must give up their account.

This is the image recorded by the Psalmist in the short beautiful Psalm from which we have taken the words of the text. It opens finely, boldly, richly: "The Lord is my Shepherd"-JEHOVAH is my Shepherd-" I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea"-says he, his feelings swelling, his soul expanding, his thoughts kindling, his language inflaming-" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Applying these words to our own improvement, I propose to notice, first, the solemn event anticipated by the Psalmist in this language-passing through the "valley of the shadow of death:" secondly, the confidence, the holy confidence, the complete confidence, which the Psalmist expresses in prospect of so solemn an event.

First, notice THE SOLEMN EVENT ANTICIPATED BY THE PSALMISTDeath. I know that some commentators tell us, the language of the text has no