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the sea obey him!" Some persons if known | distress and anguish within, he can say would be abhorred; others would decline upon unto your soul, "I am thy salvation." Fear acquaintance; and where intimacy does not not.

reduce our esteem, it commonly diminishes Look to him in all your trials. Surely, in our admiration. In other cases, ignorance is a storm, there ought to be a difference be the cause of wonder: but here it is know-tween you and others. They have made no ledge; for the character is perfect, and the provision for the evil day: but you have a object infinite. The more we know of the friend, a kind friend, an almighty friend with Saviour's attributes and works and ways, the you. You have tried him. You know “whom more we shall admire and adore. And we you have believed;" and he knoweth them are told that when he has ended all our that trust in him, and will "never leave storms, and made all things to work together them nor forsake them." for our good-then "he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." We admire him indeed now. He has already fixed and filled our minds. We already see in him such various and numberless excellences, that the world has faded into nothing by the comparison. We see in him every thing to feed our contemplation, every thing to encourage our hope, every thing to excite imitation, every thing to command attachment and praise. But how small a portion is known of him!

"-Nor earth, nor seas, nor sun, nor stars,
Nor heaven his full resemblance bears:
His beauties we can never trace,

Till we behold him face to face."

Let me conclude, First, by a word to the disobedient. He who addressed the wind and the sea, has often addressed you. He has addressed you by sickness, by affliction, by delivering mercy, by conscience, by friends, by ministers, by his law and by his gospel, by threatenings and by promises. But more insensible, more rebellious than the wind or the sea, you have not heard or obeyed him. And yet you pretend to possess reason! But wherein do you show it? "A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." And this will be your case. You are not only his creatures, but his subjects; he has not only given you privileges, but rendered you accountable for them, and he is coming to try you by them. And can you be ignorant of the result? "As for these mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring them forth and slay them before me."

Have you evils in prospect? Does a dispensation of Heaven approach you, that, instead of opening like a fine morning in May, seems setting in like a winter's night, with "dark waters and thick clouds of the sky?"

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye, so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

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Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning Providence
He hides a smiling face."

DISCOURSE LV.

FAMINE.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land.Amos viii. 11.

SIN is said to be "an evil and a bitter thing." It is evil in its nature, and bitter in its consequences. It is evil with regard to God, and bitter with regard to us. It "brought death into the world, and all our wo." Numberless are the miseries to which it has reduced individuals, families, nations, and the whole human race.

Among these, one of the most dreadful is Famine. It would not be easy even for the imagination to do justice to a calamity so tremendous. What must it be to view "the heavens over us as brass, and the earth beneath us as iron!" What must it be, from the appearances of nature, to exclaim, "Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under the clods, the gar

Secondly. Let me call upon those of you who love the Saviour, to familiarize him to your minds as present with you in all your difficulties. You need not say, Oh! if heners are laid desolate, the barns are broken were on earth, I would go to him, and tell him my grief, and ease my burdened mind. You may do so now; for though he is no longer visible, he is still accessible; and if you call, he will answer, and say, "Here I am." He is a very present help in trouble. Look to him to tranquillize a stormy world. The nations are angry-but He who stilleth the raging of the sea can also calm the tumults of the people.

Look to him, to pacify a troubled conscience. In the midst of the most painful

down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are per plexed because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate." What must it be to make observations like these: "The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh t unto them. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. They that be slain with the sword are better

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than they that be slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field."-"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget." Yes! even mothers have dressed and devoured their own offspring. The horrible fact is mentioned three times in the history of a people once peculiarly dear to God. In the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, Josephus tells us that the daughter of Eleazer had fled from beyond Jordan to the metropolis, in the general distress: she had been wealthy, but was now reduced to the last extremity after a heartrending address, she killed her infant at the breast for food and when some ruffians entered the house, and demanded whatever provision she had, she presented a dish, and throwing by the napkin-showed them the remains of her child-the other part she had eaten! Referring to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, says the prophet Jeremiah: "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." In the siege of Samaria, by Benhadad the Syrian, we read: "As the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress! And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh."

Who is not ready to say-Let us turn from these scenes of horror, and falling upon our knees, pray, “O Lord, correct us, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring us to nothing."

We divide our reflections.into three parts: the First of which regards THE NATURE OF THIS JUDGMENT. The Second, ITS DREADFULNESS. And the Third, ITS INFLICTION. "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

I. Let us consider the NATURE OF THIS JUDGMENT. It takes in the loss of the Gospel, as a judgment administered by preaching. It is a famine, not of reading, but "of hearing the words of the Lord."

We may consider this famine as eternal. The means of grace, and the ordinances of religion, are exclusively confined to this life. If you die strangers to the power of godliness, so you must continue. Your mistake will indeed be discovered, but cannot be rectified. There no throne of grace. There no messengers of mercy. There no invitations to turn and live. There no sabbath smiles upon you; no temple opens to receive you; no altar spreads before you the hallowed emblems of the Saviour's death. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Hence it is that we urge you to "seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near:" and remind you of our Lord's admonition, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence you are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."

We may consider this famine as spiritual. And thus it refers to the state of the mind; and takes place when souls are reduced to such indifference and insensibility as to be morally or judicially incapable of improveAnd yet there is a famine infinitely more ment by the institutions of religion, even dreadful than all this: and to keep you no should they be continued among them. When longer from our subject, it is the very judg- a man can no longer use food, or turn it into ment here denounced: "Behold, the days nourishment, it is the same with regard to come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a himself as if all provision was denied him— famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor death must be the consequence. The case a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of many who have long been favoured with of the Lord. And they shall wander from the Gospel, is, according to this view of the sea to sea, and from the north even to the subject, alarming. Much has been said, very east; they shall run to and fro to seek the incautiously, of the termination of a day of word of the Lord, and shall not find it."-We grace. In a sense every day is a day of need not inquire to what periods the prophecy grace; and "God is longsuffering to us-ward, immediately refers. It was to be accom- not willing that any should perish, but that plished at different times, and in various de-all should come to repentance." While grees. therefore there is life, there is hope. But

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we cease to admire Handel because some have no ears for his harmony and melody, or may choose to be perverse and fastidious?-But what do we? We disregard ignorance and prejudice, and seek after a proper standard by which we may obtain the decisions of truth. Let us apply the same rule to the subject before us. To know the dreadfulness of this judgment, let us,

surely this hope diminishes, as impenitency | rant of its worth, tramples it under foot? Do becomes inveterate. Surely favourable opportunities may elapse and return no more. Surely convictions may be stifled, and impressions worn off never to be renewed. Surely, by unsanctified attendance, year after year, the most important truths may become so familiar as to lose all their effect. Surely, by incessant trifling with divine things, God may be provoked to recall his influence from his ordinances-and thus will be fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, who saith, "Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

First; dwell upon the advantages derivable from the preaching of the gospel. The generality of those that are called by divine grace are saved by this instrumentality."Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." And the usefulness of it continues through the whole of the Christian life. "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the

We may consider this famine as doctrinal. It may then be occasioned by the removal of faithful ministers, and the succession of others of different principles. This is sure to cause a declension in the number and in the zeal of the members of churches. For the gracefulness of Christ." Some are unable to read, and the truth of God always go together. And in this case the gospel is really taken away, and something is made a substitute that will be found ineffectual for all the purposes of conversion and consolation. As light recedes, darkness in the same proportion follows. Every system has some parts in it that are essential. When the leading doctrines of the gospel are denied or concealed, the gospel is withdrawn; and when this is withdrawn, "Ichabod" may be inscribed upon the walls of the building." The glory is departed."

This famine may be considered as literal. This is the case when a people are deprived of the very institutions of religion, and are forbidden the assembling of themselves together according to their convictions. This may be done by the inroads and oppression of an enemy; by the encroachments of tyranny; by the loss of liberty of conscience. Our forefathers could explain this.

II. Let us pass from the nature of this judgment, to examine THE DREADFULNESS OF

IT.

To some men indeed this famine would be a very little grievance. Probably it would prove a pleasure rather than a pain. If the gospel was removed, they would be less incommoled and alarmed. They would rather have no prophets, unless they would "prophesy smooth things." Of a Micaiah they exclaim, "I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." "Yea, they say,"-how dreadful are actions put into words, "yea, they say unto God, Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." But do we take the value of learning from the opinion of a fool? Do we estimate the jewel from the swine, that, igno

and many have little time to search the Scriptures. Particular errors and vices are continually arising and prevailing, that require the application of particular doctrines, and the inculcation of particular duties: and a minister will study these in the choice and in the discussion of his subjects. How often in his palaces have some of you found God for a refuge! How often have your perplexities been solved, your fears banished, your hearts filled with all joy and peace in believing!Could you be reconciled to the thought of losing all the pleasure and profit you have found by experience to be connected with the means of grace?

Secondly; let us think of the importance of the soul and eternity. The body is the meanest part of our nature; and time is the shortest portion of our duration, by a decree no less than infinite. The chief question therefore should never be, "What shall I eat, and what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?"-but" What must I do to be saved?" The chief care ought to be, to gain spiritual wealth, spiritual honour, spiritual food-for these regard man in his most essential claims and necessities. Every thing should be considered as good or evil, according to its connexion with the soul and eternity: and from this principle, which a child can understand, we infer, that, beyond all comparison, the famine most to be dreaded is that which regards not the body, but the soul; not time, but eternity.

Thirdly; observe the design of such a dispensation. Some judgments, though painful, are still profitable. They remove the human arm; but it is to lead us to a dependence on the Divine. They take away the desires of

our eyes; but it is that we may ask, "Where is God my Maker, that giveth songs in the night?" How blessed was the humiliation that reduced Manasseh from the throne into a trison, where he sought and found the Lord God of his fathers! How kind was the famine that drove the prodigal to his father's house! "O God, chastise me, but do not abandon me. Try me as thou pleasest, but do not withdraw from me the proofs and the mediums of thy grace. Say any thing but this He is joined to idols, let him alone."" Other judgments are in mercy, but this is in wrath. Other judgments are parental, but this is penal. Other judgments may urge us into heaven; but this is the way to hell, "going down to the chambers of death."

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Fourthly. In estimating this curse, let us appeal to the sentiments of the righteous. Their conviction, in a case like this, far outweighs the opinion of the politicians and philosophers of the age. The question is a religious one, and the spiritual judgeth all things, though he himself is judged of no man. In what terms does David deplore the loss of divine assemblies? "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. O God, thou art my God; carly will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." Take those who are confined from the ordinances of God by disease or accident-though God does not leave them comfortless, neither are they unsubmissive, yet with the recovering Hezekiah they are asking, "What is the sign that I shall go up

to the house of the Lord?"

We can rise but one step higher, and there we meet with God himself. His people may err: but his understanding is infinite; he cannot be deceived. What does he think of this judgment? You may infer it from his benediction; "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound." You may infer it from his promise; I will give them pastors after my own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge and understanding. Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." You may infer it from his threatening; "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord."

III. We have to reflect on THE EXECUTION oF THIS SENTENCE. For some may be ready to say, How can such a thing be? It is very improbable; and, considering the divine promise, it seems to be impossible. For has he not said-"This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But a distinction instantly removes this difficulty. God has engaged to establish his church universally; but this does not regard any particular body of professors. He has engaged that the gospel shall never be removed from the world; but this does not hinder the withdrawment of it from particular places. If after all you are slow of heart to believe; if you are still thinking that such language as this never can, or never will be accomplished with regard to us; let me ask you,

First. Is not He who utters this threatening almighty, and so able to fulfil it? If he has infinite resources, from which he can bless his friends, he has the same power, the same dominion to furnish him with arms against his enemies. He can never be at a loss for instruments to do his pleasure; nor can these instruments, however weak in themselves, prove feeble in the hand of Omnipotence.

Secondly. Is not He who utters this threatening just, and so disposed to fulfil it? Men may draw God as they please; they may imagine him all patience and pity; but they will find themselves mistaken. "A God all mercy is a God unjust." He is an equitable Governor, as well as a tender Father. He is holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works. If sin is the abominable thing that he hates-if it be aggravated by light and knowledge-if the servant that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes-if the abuse of the greatest privilege be the greatest guilt-can God see all this without concern, without provocation? If at an infinite expense he has sent the gospel among us, and we make light of it; refuse to read or to hear it; or make the hearing of it a matter of mere curiosity or entertainment; applying it to no one purDose for which it was given, or turning it into licentiousness-is it conceivable that we can do this with impunity? Can God connive at such wickedness? Must he not prove that he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity?" Mercy sent forth the messengers to invite to the marriage-feast: but what said Justice of those that refused? "None of the men that were bidden shall taste of my supper."

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Thirdly. Is not he that utters this threat

ening, faithful, and so bound to fulfil it? Even | light, lest darkness come upon you: for he

a Balaam could say, "The Lord is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it! Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"-He has evinced his truth in his denunciations as well as his promises. If Joseph found his word true, so did Pharaoh; and Saul was constrained to believe it as well as David.

Fourthly. Has not he who utters this threatening fulfilled it already in various instances? Here we appeal from principles to facts. The gospel has been removed from a country; a people have been unchurched. The Jews are an eminent example. While they enjoyed their ceremonial services, they had the gospel in type; and when the Saviour was among them, they had the gospel in reality: but the kingdom of God was taken from them, and given to a people "bringing forth fruit in its season." When we consider the names by which they were called; the miracles, the ordinances, the privileges that distinguished them; and see this garden of the Lord laid waste, this people a reproach and a byword-with what force comes the admonition of the apostle: "If he spared not the natural branches, take heed also lest he spare not thee." What became of the Church of Rome, so famous as to be "spoken of throughout the whole world?" It was made "a cage for every unclean bird." Where are the seven churches of Asia? The places that once knew them, know them no more for ever. The blasphemies of the Koran sound where once the name of Jesus was as ointment poured forth; and the banners of an infamous impostor wave where once was erected the standard of the Cross, to draw all men into it. All these had a time wherein to know the things that belonged to their peace-and then they were hid from their eyes. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

The subject demands gratitude. We have reason to bless God that we have not had a famine of bread; that he has crowned the year with his goodness; and fed us with the finest of the wheat. But still less has he visited us with a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Why did the gospel reach us at such an early period? Why, when it was denied to so many, was it imparted to us? Why, since it has been withdrawn from numbers once favoured with it, is the blessing yet continued to us—and in such purity and plenty?

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Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."

Again. Let us be concerned to improve it while we possess it. It is our Saviour's application of the same doctrine. "Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the

that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light." With gospel means, be concerned to obtain gospel grace; and earnestly pray that the ministry of the word may become the ministration of the Spirit. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he be ing not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

Finally. As it is so dreadful to be destitute of the gospel, think how many of your fellow-creatures are found in this deplorable condition. They would be glad with the crumbs that fall from your table. They never hear of a Saviour. They feel depraved propensities, but know nothing of that grace which can create in us a clean heart, and re new in us a right spirit. They feel guilty fears, but know nothing of that blood which cleanses us from all sin. Pray that the Scriptures, and that missionaries may speedily reach them. Pray that the Sun of righteousness may arise, with healing under his wings, and comfort them with the knowledge of sal vation. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.”

DISCOURSE LVI.

CONVERSION.

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.-Matt. xviii. 3.

THE disciples were such dull scholars, that after all the education our Lord and Sa viour had given them, they were yet imagining that his kingdom" was of this world.” They supposed that he would deliver them from the Roman yoke; advance them as a nation to the high places of the earth; and lead them forth conquering and to conquer. In this secular empire they believed there would be degrees of power and glory, as in any other; and expecting that these places would be filled by some of their own body, after a dispute among themselves, they in

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