him. "All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done."

III. We are to WRITE HIS EPITAPH; and his epitaph is contained in these short words: "this also is vanity." And now in a few words I will endeavour to show that it is vanity for a man to come and go from the house of God, and yet have no true religion. If I made up my mind to hate God, to sin against him, and to be lost at last, I would do it thoroughly, out and out. If I had determined to be damned, and had calculated the chances, and made up my mind that it would be better to be cast away for ever, I know there is one thing I would not do, I would not go to the house of God. Why, if I made up my mind to be lost, what is the good of going there to be teazed about it? Because, if the man is faithful, he will prick my conscience and wake me up. If I am determined and have made up my mind to be lost, let me go to hell as easily as I can; what need is there that my conscience should be pricked, and this great stone laid in my way to keep me from going there? Besides, I hold that, for a man who has no love for the house of God, regularly to attend because he thinks it is respectable, is just one of the most pitiful kinds of drudgery that can be met with. If I did not love the house of God, I would not go there. If it were not a delight to me to be found in the sanctuary of God, singing of his praise, and hearing of his word, I would stop away. To be seen going to chapel twice on the Sabbath, sitting as God's people sit, rising when they rise, and singing about what you do not feel; hearing that which pricks your conscience, and listening to the reading of promises that do not belong to you; hearing about heaven, that is not yours, being frightened with hell, which is to be yours for ever-why, the man is just a born fool that goes to the house of God, except he has got an interest in it. We may commend him for going; it is a respectable thing, perhaps, and right that it should be so; but I submit it is an intolerable drudgery to go always to the house of God, if you have made up your mind to be lost. Now, on this man's tomb must be written at last-" There was a man who would not serve God, but who had not courage enough to stand out against God. There is a man so silly that he pretended to be religious, and so wicked that he was a hypocrite to his pretensions." Why, although you must deplore a wicked man's wickedness as a fearful crime, yet there is some kind of respect to be paid to the man who is downright honest in it; but not an atom of respect to the man who wants to be a cant and a hypocrite. He wishes, if he can, just to save his neck at last; just, as he thinks, to do enough to let him get off free when he comes to lay a-dying; enough to keep his conscience quiet, enough to look respectable; enough as he thinks, when he dies to give him a little chance of entering heaven, though it be, as it were, neck or nothing. Ah, poor thing! Well may we write over him, "This also is vanity!" But, sir, you will be more laughed at for your pretensions than if you had made none. Having professed to be religious, and having pretended to carry it out, you shall have more scorn than if you had came out in your right colours, and have said, "Who is the Lord, that I should fear him? Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice?" And now, are there any here who are so wicked as to choose eternal wrath? Have I any here so besotted as to choose destruction? Yes, yes, many; for if to-day, my hearer, thou art choosing sin; if thou art choosing self-righteousness, if thou art choosing pride, or lust, or the pleasures of this world; remember, thou art choosing damnation, for the two things cannot but go together. Sin is the guilt, and hell is the bread beneath it. If you choose sin, you have virtually chosen perdition. Think of this, I beseech you.

"O Lord! do thou the sinner turn!

Now rouse him from his senseless state;

O let him not thy counsel spurn,

Nor rue his fatal choice too late."

May the Lord lead you to Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life! And when ye are buried, may ye be buried with the righteous, and may your last end be like his!

"THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND THE

FULNESS THEREOF."

An Open-Air Service

ON THE STEPS OF

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE,

LONDON,

ON SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 1858.

CONDUCTED BY

THE REV. T. RICHARDSON,

Curate of St. Olave, Old Jewry, Cheapside, London.

LONDON:

J. PAUL, CHAPTER-HOUSE COURT, ST. PAUL'S.

"THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND THE FULNESS

THEREOF."

THE worship of God was commenced by singing the following hymn:--
(TUNE-Truro.)

The Lord shall reign where'er the sun,
Doth his successive journeys run;
His power extend from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

People and realms of every tongue,
To Him shall raise the grateful song;
And Jews with Gentiles shall proclaim
The glories of Immanuel's name.

Blessings abound where'er He reigns;
The pris'ner leaps to loose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest;

And all the sons of want are blest.

Let ev'ry creature rise and bring
The noblest honours to our King;
Augels descend with songs again,

And heaven and earth repeat the strain.

A short prayer was then offered up, that the life-giving power of the Holy Ghost might enable the preacher so to speak, and the hearers so to receive, the Word of God, that each might be blessed for the sake of Jesus Christ. Several of the congregation joined in the Lord's prayer; after which the attention of the crowd was directed to

PSALM XXIV.

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

"For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

"He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

"This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

"Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

"Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory."

The first verse of the above Psalm was selected as the text.

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."

It is said by those who have commented upon the Word of God, that this Psalm is supposed to have been written upon the occasion of the ark of the Lord being brought up from the house of Obed Edom unto Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and that it was this which gave occasion for the closing of the Psalm: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye left up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." And I have taken this text on an occasion of rejoicing, that the ark of the Lord is permitted to be placed upon this spot; that the ark of the Lord is permitted to be opened upon the steps of the Royal Exchange. If you open the ark of the Lord, you will find the written Word of God therein; and if you will open that written Word, you will see the words which our forefathers had read and valued, and which they accordingly placed as motto on this building. "The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." It is to this Psalm that I shall now direct your attention, and in so doing I shall speak—

I. Of the Message of Creation. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." Can we really comprehend that this earth is moving at a speed which we can scarcely grapple with? when we remember that the earth is moving round that great centre the sun; that this world is one of those tiny stars which deck the heavens night by night; one of those bodies over which the sun seems to have an influence; if we can grapple with this idea, we can cordially say, with the Psalmist, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof."

Man did not make the sun-man did not make the moon-man did not place this wonderful globe to move in space with that rapidity with which it does-and yet, ever since the creation, she has moved onward and onward, interfering with none of the rest of the heavenly bodies, nor they interfering with her. In creation-when this great globe was called out of nothing, it was the Lord's; so in preservation, this planet moving along in space was, and is the Lord's; so that we are enabled to declare with the Psalmist, "The earth is the Lord's. Descending from creation, as a whole, and examining the productions of the earth, to whom do they belong? The original persons who placed that motto where it is, knew to whom the objects which are here passing from hand to hand during six days of the week belonged. They knew from whom all those productions came. Where would be the use of our ships if there were no productions given by the Lord, who sends seed time and harvest, summer and winter, spring and autumn? What would the use of our freights be, if the giver of all that is freighted never gave any increase? Yes, with the promoters of this great building we will declare, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Take our own country, with its coal and iron, and copper and slate, in the bowels of the earth; look at its ships which are going to and fro transferring the productions of the earth from place to place, and drawing an immense amount of business to this one great centre of attraction. Yes! "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Yes! it is God who causes the sun to shine and the rain to descend upon the just and upon the unjust; man may sow