His Son? What! was there that love in His heart, that He spared not His own Son? What will He not give me? How can He withhold any thing from me? He has given me the best; He has shown to me His holiness, and justice, and faithfulness and tenderness, in such characters as I can never see them in elsewhere. He has written them out in the heart's blood of His own dear Son. What else shall I see?

Beloved, there is a means of grace that none of us lay sufficient stress upon. We ought to lay much stress upon prayer, the reading of God's Word, self-examination and the ordinances of God; and we often say to some, Ye give your souls but small measure of blessing here; wait upon God in all His ordinances; if He has appointed them it is a sort of treason in you to neglect them.' But there is an ordinance we are too prone to forget; it is the ordinance of a holy walk. In holy obedience God meets me. I catch a closer view of God; I come nearer to God. Many a man has read his Bible, prayed over his Bible, wrestled with God in prayer; he has gone out, taken up a cross, borne shame for Christ; and through that cross God the Spirit has given him a clearer view of God, than he has had days and months before. Oh! what costliness there is in knowing the Lord! The ordinances of His house are precious, but among the most precious of all is the ordinance of a holy walk before Him.

My dear hearers, there is something oft cheerless to our spirits, (I always find it,) in coming up from the country to London. When I go to Hampstead, and see what the Lord's day is there, see how men trample upon it, see what a day of mirth and desecration it is, just as if there were no God; and when I come into London, and see the places for drinking open, and full-full; when I hear in the streets language, such that one may well close one's ears as one passes through them; when one sees such scenes, that one would give all that one loves not to see them: oh! it makes one's heart ache. We ought to be oppressed with the thought. But days will come when "this earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord." It, shall not be always as it is. Jesus will get to Himself the glory; Jehovah will reign and triumph: "for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, even as the waters cover the mighty deep." Ah! my dear brother, that goest to thy poor bed to-night with the

thought, I rose up ignorant of God this morning, and I go to bed now ignorant of God; and if I were to sleep this night in death, I should be lost to all eternity.' Ah! my brother, God may work by this simple appeal; it is tender, it is affectionate; it is with the view of a long eternity before thee; it may bring thee to thy knees, lay thee in the dust; it may turn over a fresh leaf in the book of thine heart; it may just unfold to thee thyself. Happy, happy night will it be to me, if I should only hear of one, who was brought to know himself, and to know Him who was once forsaken of God; to abhor sin, to loathe himself, to live on Christ, and be happy.

May the Lord of all grace pardon and bless. May you know and love Him more and serve Him better; and to a Triune God shall be all the glory.

A SERMON,

BY THE REV. J. H. EVANS, M.A.

PREACHED AT JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, BEDFORD ROW, ON SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 19, 1845.

"And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people people brake off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it ; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."-Exodus xxxii. 2-6.

We have here a sad description of the weakness and infirmity of a child of God; how he was wrought upon by the multitude to act as the multitude; overcome by "the fear of man," and little influenced by the fear of God. And we have also a sad testimony of the base ingratitude of the people of Israel towards Moses: "As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt," was their language. "This Moses!"—why, he had turned his back upon the court of Pharaoh for them; he had exposed himself to all persecutions for them; he had jeopardied his life for them; as a wondrous instrument in the hand of God, he had wrought wonderful miracles for them; he was their best and their truest of all earthly friends. "This Moses"-" this man!" What is human gratitude! But when the heart is not "right with God," it is never right with man. They were wrong, altogether wrong, as it regarded their best Bene

VOL. XII.-No. 408.-Oct. 23, 1845.

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factor; little wonder, then, that they overlooked their inferior friend -their lower benefactor,

But we have also a sad unfolding of what is worst of all—how a people laden with blessings, favoured above all nations, above all the people upon the face of the earth, could, on the most frivolous pretext, the most flimsy pretence, quickly-(as we read in the eighth verse" they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them”)—turn aside from God, run into idolatry, and offer Him the greatest insult which can be offered by His creatures. Such is man; yes, regenerate man too—as in the case of Aaron. Such is And such is God; who alone can bear with men, as He did bear with them, with the long-suffering and patience of a God.

man.

This has been laid upon my heart, somewhat in connection with the subject which I preached upon last Lord's day evening; and first of all, I would make a few remarks upon the nature of idolatry ; the propensity there is in human nature to idolatry. Secondly, let us consider, the facts that are here especially described, as connected with it. And that will lead us, thirdly, into a more pleasing and pleasant subject-the blessings of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. With regard to the people of Israel, their whole course was with but few exceptions, a course of idolatry. Even when they were in Egypt they were tainted with idolatry; as you read in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel, and the sixth verse—“ In the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt;"-they had defiled themselves;—' "I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.” And if we turn to the seventh chapter of the Acts, and the forty-third verse, we find that even in the wilderness they did so : They took

See ante, No. 407.

up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of their god Remphan, figures which they made to worship them," even in the wilderness. So that although there may not have been open idolatry, there was secret and private idolatry carried on among them, all through the wilderness. And if we turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of the book of Joshua, and the thirty-second verse, we find that in his days still they were filled with idolatry: "Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses." Now he puts them to the test; he did not rely upon their words; neither can we rely upon the words of any man; we must put him to the test, "Now therefore put away, (said he,) the strange gods that are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel"-" put them away from among you." And if we read the history of the Judges, how largely was this unfolded among them! If we read the history of the Kings, with but few exceptions, still they turned to idolatry; and it went on, till they were carried into Babylon; after which period we read not of their being any more a nation charged with idolatry.

verse

But this leads us to a solemn question-Whence this propensity to idolatry? And when we think what a sin it is—a God-abhorred sin, a God-abhorring sin, and a heaven-excluding sin-(can you doubt it? look at the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, and the eighth -“the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death;")—when we reflect how many millions there are upon the face of the earth, that are nothing more nor less than idolaters, it leads us into a solemn, and awful, and almost overwhelming train of thought. I always remember, that he who "knew his Master's will and did it not," shall be "beaten with many stripes," while "he that knew it not, shall be beaten with few stripes;" yet, there still remains upon record-and God's own Word testifies of it-that idolaters shall be excluded from the kingdom of heaven. And if we inquire the cause of it, we must at once say, that it arises from the depravity and corruption of our natures-the sensuality, the carnality, the folly and the pride of our natures. The carnal mind -dress it how we may, polish it how we may, educate it how we may