the kind consequences of his personal regard, we have ample cause for praise. Every creature of God is good, but his providential bounties will be received with peculiar pleasure and richer delight, by those who know and embrace this truth. Whether our barns are larger or smaller, if thus they are filled, how happy is our case! heirs of an immortal inheritance, temporal supplies will be considered as the wise and generous allowance of pocket-money, till the time of our majority, when we shall receive the purchased possession. Every mercy has been forfeited by sin, the very crumbs which fall from the well-spread table of Divine providence; but such as are united by a living faith to Jesus, the great heir of all things, have a recovered and incontestible title to the enjoyment of all competent good; and they alone possess and enjoy it as they ought, for they have honored God by their first-fruits; that is, to speak in terms appropriate to the gospel dispensation, they have first sought the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things are adding thereto. This is the true evangelical exposition of our text, and that you may in your harvests have your barns so filled as that they may prove blessings, let us notice that it includes the conscientious appropriation of our persons and property to God and his service. I. A cordial consecration of the person to God; this is what God requires, first in point of order, he asks our hearts, and he asks them early-My son give me thine heart. As the first fruits were by God's appointment to be brought into the temple to denote his sovereignty, and to avow the dependance and obligation of those who presented them, and as to this ceremonial observance they were urged by ripening crops, and promised abundance, so by the mercies of God, "I beseech I beseech you therefore, brethren, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which "is your reasonable service." * 66 Thus honour him by the early dedication of your first ripe fruits; in the morning of your life, the beginning of a pleasant and abundant harvest in his. service, yield yourselves to him as a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.† Your certain advantage shall be found herein, your barns shall be filled with plenty. It may be well imagined that some infidel farmers among the Jews, who lived in the neglect of this duty themselves, would jeer and insult such as conscientiously presented their earliest productions to Jehovah; in the true spirit of him who betrayed his mastcr, * Romans, xii. 1. † James, i. 18. they might exclaim, " Wherefore all this waste ?" It has even been urged by the foes of religion, that it demands sacrifices too great and too soon, that it deprives young persons of pleasure, and that also in the most cheerful part of their lives. Pitiable ignorance! cruel delusion! so far from it, not only is the precept its own reward, but "There is no "man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, "or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or “lands, for my sake, and the gospel, but he shall "receive an hundred-fold now in this time, houses, "and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and chil“dren, and lands, with persecutions; and in the "world to come eternal life."* But another objection and of far different character presents itself against offering my first-fruits, -they are so few and so poor that they are not worth dedication ;-alas my strength is perfect weakness; my heart is like a broken bow; my best attempts to serve are offensive. Recollect it was not the quantity but the quality which Jehovah regarded in the first-fruits presented of old under the law; under the gospel, sincerity of heart is called perfection, and while it becomes you to think meanly of yourself, you should not either deny the existence or disparage the excellence of his own work in you, * Mark, x. 30. of his own you give him, and he beholds with delight, and accepts with complacency the solitary sheaf. The flower, when offered in the bud, "Is no vain sacrifice." Moreover, the first-fruits were the pledge and earnest of the remainder, and should you act as we now advise, as the text urges, and present yourselves early, cheerfully, and with sincerity to God, you offer the best pledge that your whole life shall be entirely his, and the smallness of your ability, the imperfection of your service, and the scantiness of your knowledge, shall be the best present proof that you will proceed even to the end, and lay up a good store against the evil and unavoidable day of necessity. The satisfaction, the permitted delight which a farmer feels when he beholds his barns well filled, and the grain housed in a good condition, but feebly shadows forth the comprehensive blessing ensured by the promise in the text. The truth ever exceeds the type; the substance the shadow; and present and temporal prosperity shall merely in its abundance and continuance prefigure the richer privileges reserved for such in eternal glory. Confirmation and illustration are obtained by referring to our Lord's words on this subject: "all * What "these things shall be added unto you. things?-present good, clothing, food, and such things as the Gentiles seek after, that is with toilsome effort, frequently with unsuccessful exertion, and always as their best and only portion. "All needful good will God bestow, "And crown that grace with glory too; "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; "that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat "the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee."+ Happy for time and eternity. Well with thee in this state and in that which is to come. But while this general application of our text is well warranted and is continually verified, we may descend more to detail, and observe Illy. That it includes honoring God with the first fruits of our property. It should be our own, for we are not called to give another's to God; he hates robbery for burnt-offering; with a thief he will not be a partaker, nor share the spoil with the * Matt. vi. 33. + Psalm cxxviii, 1—2, |