material, that I was exulting in the social? What will it then avail me if the world is mine, seeing that I have lost my soul?

Now, the Gospel is related to me in the immortal-is related to my nature, to my reason, to my spirit, in contradistinction to my body. It is related to my spiritual nature-a relation apart from all that is social and terrestrial; and it will give me to have my being now in communion with God, and to have my dwelling now in the scenes of eternity, and to have my conversation, and my treasure, and my hope in heaven. It will create me a new creature in Christ Jesus, that I might hereafter become a creature of life, and love, and joy, in the presence of God. Such is the relation of the Gospel to my mind; this would be the effect of it on my nature; and I should pass from the unsatisfactory region in which I now am existing, to find myself in the presence of God, and in the joy of God.

And surely there is in this aspect of the Gospel something which would deeply affect our minds. If we pass into the other world without having received the Gospel into our minds, without having received the truth of God as part and parcel of our being, of our mental and immortal being-the effect would be, as I have already said, that we should find all the realities of the invisible world to be against us, and against us for ever. We shall go there, not only with the conviction that we have debased and vilified our nature, but with the conviction that we have refused a boon that would have restored our naturethat we have refused the overflowing love, forgiving kindness, the transforming grace of our Maker and Redeemer. We shall go into eternity with this conviction: say, then, whether eternity shall not be a horror and a curse.

I beseech you, my dear hearers, to think of this. I would draw your thoughts to the consideration of what you are-of what you are in yourselves, in your spiritual feelings-as the possessors of a soul that is of more worth than the great globe, and which has presented to it an inheritance of more value than all the stars; and I beseech you to look at the Word of God, at the truth of God, at the Gospel of Christ, as related to this being in the way we have stated-as suited to your nature in its present and its prospective state of being; so suited to it that, possessing it, nothing else can remain to be desired. I beseech you to think of God in his relation to your spiritual and immortal being; so suited to you that, if you receive his truth, you shall have, even now, the elements around you, in which you shall dwell for ever; as suited to you so that you shall have in your bosoms those reconcilings in which you are to glory and be gladdened for ever; as suited to you as guilty, inasmuch as it conveys to you the everlasting pardon of the everlasting God; as suited to you as sinful, inasmuch as it would transform you into temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in; as suited to you as miserable and destitute, inasmuch as it would impart everlasting consolation and joy; as suited to you as dying, inasmuch as it can impart a confidence that should triumph in death; as suited to you as immortals, inasmuch as it has in store a crown of righteousness, and mansions of felicity-an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. O, that you would realize the thought of your own spiritual being, and that you would see the Gospel of Truth in that relation to the spiritual of which I have spoken; and then say whether it is not justly entitled to the appellation of "rational;" and say whether you, individually, will not henceforth desire it with your whole heart.

The exhortation before us has something still more specific. We are exhorted to "desire the sincere milk of the word." By "sincere," we are to understand pure, unmixed, unadulterated—the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. There must be no admixture of men, for that would only serve to deteriorate the quality of the Word of God. They might make it palatable to depraved nature, but the end thereof would be death. It is strange to consider how the truth of God has been perverted and adulterated in all ages. The primitive revelation that was given to man, was very speedily lost in ridiculous fable or superstitious dreams. The system of Judaism, the religion of Moses, was very soon secularized in all its aspects, and made void by the traditions of men. And no sooner was the economy of the Gospel introduced, than it was assailed by a torrent of fanaticism and delusion: on the one hand, Jewish bigotry would array Christianity in the pomp of Moses; and, on the other hand, Gentile philosophy would have it wear the garb of the schools. It is melancholy to think with what "vain babblings" the Church was invaded in the earliest times, and how early the Apostle's words were realized, that there were many Antichrists in the world. Against Jewish teachers and Gentile innovators, a considerable portion of the Epistles are directed; and, perhaps, we are not wrong in concluding, that against them the Apostle Peter uttered the words of the text—“ As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." "If you observe the ritual of Moses, Christ will be to you of none effect; if you yield to the philosophy, falsely so called, you have denied the faith. You must abide by the simple testimony we have given you; you must walk in the ordained and commanded path, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left."

Taking the exhortation in this view, we apprehend it is scarcely less important in the present day than it was in the days of the Apostle. For in how many ways is the truth of Christianity perverted! How many forms of error has heresy assumed! How important is the injunction, "Take heed what ye hear!" On the one hand, truth has been mixed up with rites and ceremonies, and all that amalgamates with the world; and on the other hand, it has been stripped almost of its native comeliness, and exhibited in deformity. Here we have the dry bones of Socinianism, and there the foul monstrosities of the Antinomians. In this place the people are frozen by the chill influence of the neologic infidelity, and in the other place they are misled by the rabid frenzy of fanatical extravagance. On every side error is to be guarded against; and it is the part of him who would follow the Scriptures to abide by them. Let us endeavour, in these circumstances, to attend to the admonition of the Apostlelet us "cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart." Let us search the Scriptures, knowing that we have in them eternal life. Let us read the precious words that have come out of the Saviour's lips. Let us attend to the Apostle when he declares that he would know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified :" and let us rejoice with the Apostle John, when he declared "the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son." In this manner we shall realize all the objects of the Gospel: we shall be enabled to see in it and in its development the glory of God in the highest, in the richest of the Redeemer's love; and we shall realize in ourselves, by blessed experience "the peace which passeth understanding," and "good-will to the children of men."

But perhaps the exhortation to "desire the sincere milk of the word" may refer, not merely to the admixture of error and heresy, but to the introduction into the Gospel of foreign matter-to the introduction into its exhibitions of something altogether disconnected with it-for instance, the introduction of metaphysical subtilties or rhetorical conceits. There is no doubt that the existence of these must be prejudicial in the exhibition of the truth, and the desire of this must disqualify for the reception of the truth. We would not say that embellishments or developments are in themselves wrong; but we would say that if they are desired and sought after for their own sakes, they are indeed to be worse than condemned. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; and if any man hear, let him listen as in the presence of God. Embellishments of truth, and eloquence in connexion with the truth, when sought for on their own account, are indeed preposterous and absurd. Embellishment of that whose beauty is supreme! What can be more preposterous? Eloquence to aggrandize eternity! How atrocious an absurdity! To seek and cull the flowers of fancy and genius when the man stands on the brink of a precipice! What can more emphatically prove the individual a fool? Surely these things can never be sought after when the truth is felt in its native beauty, and when eternity is felt in its awful grandeur. And yet in contemplation of the supreme beauty of truth, its lovely hues may spread themselves before the eye, and a flood of natural eloquence may pour from the lips to dazzle and overwhelm; but still the great object is to feel the truth: and if we do feel it, we shall speak of the oracles of God, and shall listen to them, as in the presence of the Eternal.

My Christian friends, it is of great importance that we lay these things to heart. We stand on the verge of eternity, and the eye of the Omnipotent is upon us. We shall soon appear before the great white throne, and stand before our Judge. How should we desire that we may obtain that which can alone render us acceptable in his presence, which can alone qualify us for the destinies of eternity. We fear that there is a strong propensity in those who preach the Word of God, and in those who hear, to desire something besides the sincere and the unadulterated truth: but, surely, miserable are they who seek in the annunciations of truth, anything but the honour of their Master, and the salvation of souls. Miserable must he be regarded who would set forth the powers of his own genius, when he is called to set forth, and to commend to the approval of men, the Lord Jesus Christ. Miserable must he be who, when he is called to sound the alarm in the ears of men, should seek to amuse them with sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. And miserable must they be who will not receive the truth because there is some peculiarity about the speaker, or something that he disrelishes in the mode in which the truth is presented. Every voice has its own tone, every mind has its own character; and the truth of God must be, of course, expressed in the individual's own tones, and must assume something of the form of the individual's own mind. And thus where we have the sweet s'nger of Israel, and the lofty measures of Isaiah, we have also the herdsman of Tekoah: thus we have the same truth expressed in the diversity of taste and talent displayed in the writings of Peter and Paul. It is our duty to receive the truth, and to look at it, in whatever form it comes to our eye and to our mind. And I say again, miserable are they who refuse the truth, who will not

receive it, because, on the one hand, the tones in which it is expressed grate harshly on the ear, or because, on the other hand, the tones are too soft. Miserable are they who will refuse the truth because they do not like the earthly vessel in which it is contained and presented to them. Miserable is it to refuse to profit by a sermon because there is too much of this doctrine, or too little of that doctrine; because there is a destitution of that fancy and intellectualism which they have been accustomed to approve—or because there is too much of these. Let us seek to listen to the word, desiring to hear the voice of God, to feel as in the presence of the Eternal; and then indeed we shall be blessed. It is the truth, and nothing but the truth in its simple form, that alone can regenerate the soul, that alone can produce the growth of the spiritual man, that alone can exhibit the themes of eternity.

Let us inquire whether or not we have received the truth in the love of it— whether we have desired the sincere unadulterated truth. Let us inquire whether we rejoice in it, and whether we act on the principles it enjoins. Many of us, perhaps all, have expressed an approval of the truth, and a desire to disseminate the truth, and during the week gone by many of us have been full of excitement in the diffusion of the truth. What, if after all, the truth has no power in our own minds, in our own hearts! What, if after we have been engaged in diffusing the Gospel, we ourselves should be cast away! Many of you have been saying, perhaps, "Come, see our zeal for the Lord;" while, Jehulike, you have not been walking in the way of the Lord at all. How absurd, how preposterous, how irrational, is it that we should seem to take an interest in the concerns of others, while we are so regardless of our own! What can be more absurd, or more irrational, than to seek to send the Gospel to all the ends of the earth, while we ourselves neglect the great salvation; to seek that others should receive the pearl of great price, while we trample it under our feet; to seek that others may appreciate the glory of the Gospel, while we make light of it by our indifference from day to day! What can be more absurd or more preposterous?

I beseech you examine yourselves. Let us all examine ourselves, and see what has been the source of our conduct-what has been the motive that has actuated us. Let us take heed lest, a promise being left us of entering in, any of us should seem to come short of it. There were builders of the ark who sunk beneath the billows on which it rose: there were builders of the temple who never offered any sacrifice there. Let us fear, lest after having taken an interest in the eternal happiness of others, we ourselves should not attain it, but be cast into hell with a lie in our right-hand! I beseech you to lay these things to heart-that you desire the truth as the only thing that can support you in time, and that can carry you in triumph and exultation into the abodes of glory.

THE OMNISCIENCE OF THE DEITY.

REV. T. DALE, A.M.

ST. MATTHEW'S CHAPEL, DENMARK HILL, NOVEMBER 16, 1834.

"Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?"-PROVERBS, XV. 11,

AMONG the many internal evidences-those, I mean, arising out of the tenor and tendency of the Sacred Oracles themselves-that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, one of the most striking, at first sight perhaps, when carefully pondered and minutely analyzed-one of the most convincing, even after mature reflection, will be found in the immensity of the power that might be brought to bear on the whole human race by the complete and general application even of a single text. That from which I am about to address you, for example, if first carried home to every human heart, and then followed out to its obvious and palpable results by all who acknowledge it, would of itself avail, among those who are called Christians, to the total extinction of all wickedness, and even to the encouragement and ascendancy of all true religion: for it contains, first, an assertion; secondly, an inference (and little more, we repeat, is needed to the moral renovation of the whole nominal Church) that those who in theory admit the one, should in practice apply the other. If we are not prepared to gainsay the assertion that "hell and destruction are before the Lord," how can we avoid or parry the home-thrust conveyed to each of our bosoms in the inference-" how much more then the hearts of the children of men?" And wherein would it fall short of practical insanity, were one amongst us to insinuate or imply, that in his heart were mazes of deceitfulness so complicated and multiplied, that the All-detecting could pass by the lurking-places of so gloomy a security that the glance of the All-beholding could not pervade and inundate them with light?

The assertion once rightly admitted, then, and the inference once duly applied, who would dare to regard iniquity in his heart, which he knew the Lord searched, any more than to whisper it with his lips with an utterance which he knew the Lord could hear? Who would dare to live without preparation of heart for that searching and decisive judgment which shall bring to trial, in presence of the assembled universe, every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil? The root of all practical evil is practical unbelief on our part, and patient long-suffering upon God's: for such is the deceitfulness of men, that unbelief arises out of that very long-suffering and here is the proof-" Because sentence against an evil world is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."