ON REVIVALS.

(Continued from page 174.)

Fourthly. How are we to look for a revival?

And here I scarcely need press upon you again our need of it, for that has been done already; but I would exhort you to have in your mind, and on your heart, a sense of that need, and an earnest desire to obtain that good thing I plead for, together with a conviction that it is the influence of the Holy Spirit can alone effect it. Feeling this need; desiring this end; and fixing your eye steadily on its author; look for it by fasting, that is religious fasting, which is by being so much grieved, affected, and impressed with your own sins, the sins of the church, and the sins of the world, as to have little or no inclination for the gratification of the ordinary appetite. When in great grief, a little food suffices; any thing approaching to a feast or banquet is abhorred, and fasting itself becomes congenial to a man's nature. In your grief then for Jerusalem's sins, keep a religious fast, a fast which shall express and aid inward humiliation, which shall loose the fleshly cords of nature that the spirit may mount upwards-that the body may

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commune with the soul in self-examination and mortification. How comes it to pass that fasting has been laid aside in modern times? Because Roman Catholics have abused it, do Protestants therefore think they have a licence for despising and neglecting it? I fear it is, because the present generation of believers love ease, and shrink from rigour and self-denial. But did not the disciples fast, though not as the Pharisees did? Did not our Lord himself fast? And has not the universal Church in all ages considered it a Christian's bounden duty? Not, indeed, that man was made for fasting, but fasting was made for man. Ah! but the persuasion is now wanting that this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting, and here lies the root of the evil; it is unbelief, and in looking for a revival, we must first look for the removal of this accursed thing.

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"All

Again, look for it by prayer. I stop not to tell you the mighty things prayer has done, but I remind you that the Lord has said to every one of his family; Open thy mouth wide, and I shall fill it;" things ye ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive:" "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." Consider that now is the day, when "the Lord of Hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle," that the cry is gone forth, "Who is on the Lord's side? Who will go and pray before the Lord?" Consider that no one is exempted from this summons; and although the priests of the Lord have already encompassed the walls of Jericho, the shout of the people is needed to bring them down. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Pray then in the Spirit and with the whole heart, that His kingdom may come; and although your prayers, yea the united prayers

of millions of sinners are unworthy the Lord Jehovah's acceptance, yet through the prevailing advocacy of your Mediator and Intercessor, for His own name sake,-for His own glory, for the glorifying of His Son Jesus, you shall obtain an answer of peace. Leave to Him? the time, the order, the circumstances of your desire,' and He will never disappoint you of your hope, for "He never said to the sons of Jacob, seek ye my face, in vain."

But while you use the means in seeking a revival of religion, above all look beyond them; look to the Lord alone, who is the only source, author and spring of it, and herein that His own glory is chiefly concerned. Think not for a moment, in exhorting you to the use of means, that I meant you were to do so much and then to expect so much; for this would be legalism with a witness; this would be seeking a revival as a legalist seeks merit, viz., by what he does, and would bring us to this, that the work of our salvation in all its details, begins with self; yea, this would land us on the very high places of Pelagianism, where I fear many just now Look, then, for the Lord, as those that wait for the morning. Look for, and expect an Almighty power to be put forth for this end-the Almighty power of Him who first caused light to shine out of darkness; get rid of your stale notions of thinking and measuring what you expect by what you do: and desire earnestly, desire heartily, to have that as a free gift which God alone can effect, and of which He will have all the glory.

are.

But the thought of a revival is a solemn thought; solemn in itself, and solemn in its consequences. One of the immediate consequences we may expect will be

persecution. A plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit necessarily brings the church into conflict with the world, into conflict of the most decided and uncompromising kind. Now it flags, not that the world has given way, or retreated, but that the church has given way and left the field, and she has not courage, or strength, to renew the attack. But if once the Holy Spirit be largely given we shall be again led to the attack immediately. Hence, then, if we hope for such an effusion in our days, let us learn in the prospect of it, to view our holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, with feelings of deep affection. So that hated by the world, belied, betrayed, and abandoned by many that went out from us, because they were not of us, we may be able to stand a devoted band, having no help on our side but that which is invisible-a spectacle of men and angels.

A FELLOW-LABOURER.

SHORT SERMON.

2 Cor. viii. 9.

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

THE thorough persuasion of the loveliness of virtue on the one hand, and the deformity of vice on the other, are not motives sufficiently strong for man in his fallen state, to ensure his shunning the broad road that leads to destruction, to turn his feet into the narrow path that leads to life. The religion of Christ presents higher motives to obedience than "do this and live." It says, receive this grace and love of Christ in dying for sinners, and be melted into love and obedience. But here I must

remind you, that a mere head knowledge of the Gospel plan of Salvation by Jesus Christ will not of itself save either from the guilt or power of sin. In order to be saved, it is absolutely necessary that the third person of the ever blessed Trinity, the Holy Ghost, engrave this doctrine of Christ crucified on the fleshly table of your heart; then and then only will you be enabled to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; then and then only will your feet be effectually turned into the paths of life. The Apostle Paul, in the chapter before us, is exhorting the Corinthian Christians (whom God had blessed with plenty) to a liberal contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem, who, at this time, were in great distress. And he exhorts them to this duty, in the striking words of the text, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he were rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." It is not my intention, on the present occasion, to use this text to exhort you to charity to man in its limited sense, but rather to God in its extended sense; even to stir you up at this holy season, (when our Church calls on us to commemorate the sufferings and dying love of the Son of God) to love Him who first loved us, and "hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour." In order to this, consider,

I. The glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was, and His subsequent humiliation.— "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he were rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.” II. Christ's love towards us, and the benefits derived

from His sufferings. For your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."