his mercy, and deal with us according to our deserts, how could we stand? If the man who despises the ordinances of religion now, were for ever shut from those rich privileges, where would be his hope? The fountain which is to quench his thirst at some future period would be suddenly dried up. The very means perhaps of his conversion to God would be cut off. If, again, the man who after receiving many mercies, and forgetting them, were to have the door of mercy closed against him, where would be the joy amongst the angels of God, over perhaps this very same repenting sinner? Times and seasons are not in our hands. Man is narrow in his views and slow in his conceptions of mercy; but so far as the East is from the West, so far does the Lord set our sins from us, when pardon is sought in his own appointed way. The means of grace which lead to penitence are still afforded to the sinner. The voice is yet sounding in his ears, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die, O house of Israel?"

But, 3dly, when, through much tribulation, doubt, and perplexity; when, after many sharp and severe conflicts with Satan, the

world, and his own heart; when, through evil report and good report, the Christian traveller shall enter into his rest, then the means of grace will cease. Prayer will be no longer called for, because all our requests will be swallowed up in endless praise. Faith will resign her seat in the soul of the believer, and love will reign in that breast for ever. Hope will lose her very being; she will rise into the highest state of enjoyment. Time, which whilst the Christian was on earth reproached him for the misemployment of his hours, will be no longer known. Eternity will commence; eternity will be for ever. Then the means employed to wean us from this world will cease likewise. Sorrow, pain, disappointment, with all their train of momentary evils, shall be no more known. The calculations of the apostle will be found correct. "I reckon that the sufferings of this world are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed." That keen anguish occasioned by the loss of the dearest earthly connexions shall be done away in the enjoyment of the society of the blessed. We shall commune and

reason together of those things which have happened. Then the points of conduct in others, which have appeared strange and unaccountable to us, then the higher mysteries of the divine government, shall (if it be for our benefit) be known. Then, we shall see God as he is; we shall behold him as a reconciled God; we shall adore his patience, his long-suffering, his neverceasing mercy in Christ Jesus. We shall have powers and faculties suited to our high employment: we shall join with angels and saints in one common song of praise: we shall have the harps of God, and shall sing "Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth :" we shall be the children of God, even the children of the resurrection.

Such, my brethren, is the rich provision made by a God of grace and mercy for his poor unworthy servants; unworthy to gather up the very crumbs from under his table, and yet permitted to eat of the heavenly manna, to be satisfied with the bread of life, and to enjoy the presence of the Lord Jehovah. O let it be our care to live up to this our high and heavenly call

in us.

ing. Let us not neglect the gift which is Let us beseech Almighty God to vouchsafe unto us that grace which shall purify the heart, cleanse the spirit, sanctify the affections, and make us citizens of heaven, whilst we are yet on earth. Let us pray for an increase of faith in Christ Jesus, as a full and sufficient sacrifice for sin: that we may see our own sinfulness, and our absolute need of such a Saviour as the Lord has provided. And whilst we thus pray, let us not forget to praise God for past mercies, humbly looking for an increase of that spiritual nourishment which can satisfy; and still further to an enjoyment of that state when God shall be the centre of all blessedness, and his servants shall in the highest sense serve him! Thus living in the constant use of the means of grace, we may humbly hope for the full enjoyment of endless kingdom of our God. We shall now take pleasure in opening every door of usefulness to all around us. The wider the circulation of the Scriptures, the more numerous the preachers of the Gospel, the greater the accommodation afforded to the devout hearer;

blessedness in the

the more refined, spiritual, and exalted will be our joy. We shall not merely rejoice, but lend assistance to the carying on of these good works. And when that hour comes when all earthly worship will cease from us, we shall feel a humble confidence that the saving truths of the Gospel, upon which we have built, shall be delivered down, pure and unadulterated, to those who shall come after us. The lamp of God's word will shine bright upon the dying Christian, to gladden and to cheer his path. He will rejoice in the promise of his God and Saviour, as he looks to a future harvest to be reaped by those very means which he himself has been employing. He will see a wise and merciful appointment in all God's works. And if the bread has never failed, and the water has never been cut off during his earthly pilgrimage, he will trust in the promise of his God, and look for that sustenance which shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.