worthy of the crumbs which fall from the table of the Lord Jesus; but still if we receive the elements in a grateful remembrance of his death, and are determined to correct our errors, amend our lives, and devote ourselves to the service of God, we receive it as we ought, as worthily as our fallen nature will admit of:

"A broken heart, my God, my King,

Is all the sacrifice I bring:

The God of grace will ne'er despise

A broken heart for sacrifice."

SERMON XIV.

"As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God! My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God ?"-PSALM, xlii. 1, 2.

THE animated language in which the holy Psalmist expresses his desires for a close interview and communion with God, is a proof of the fervor of his devotion; and should inspire us with a disposition when we approach the throne of grace, to call upon our souls, and all the powers of our minds, to engage with becoming spirit in the prosecution of our religious duties. When we fall upon our knees in private, to offer up our prayers to the Almighty, or when we come into his sacred temple to unite in the accents of devotion, with the assembly of his worshipping people, we should recollect the nature and attributes of that Being before whom we appear, and worship him in the beauty of holiness; we should remember that if angels in his presence veil their faces; that if the cherubic host of heaven cast their crowns at the feet of Jesus, when they ascribe to him that praise so justly his due, we should endeavour to render him the tribute of a grateful and undivided heart; the world and its momentary concerns should be for a season laid aside. We should keep our minds directed to the object of divine worship; we should recollect that the religious privileges we enjoy were purchased for us by the precious

blood of a redeeming Jesus, and light the torch of our affections at the altar of the living God.

The world, my hearers, will admit of zealous attention to every pursuit, except that of religion. The votaries of wealth will rise up early, late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, in order to extend their temporal possessions. There is no part of the universe but what they will explore, in order to increase their riches. Their hearts are fixed upon the world, and their minds and conversation are absorbed in the consideration of earthly things. Conduct of this nature they judge not only consistent and proper, but absolutely necessary to secure them success; an enthusiasm without which, their efforts would be unequal to the object they have in view. But when the followers of Jesus appear animated with divine things; when they talk of panting after God as the hart panteth after the water; when they confess that their souls are athirst for God, yea, even for the living God; when in agreement with the Psalmist they declare that one day spent in the courts of the Lord, is better than a thousand devoted to the world; that their earnestness subjects them to censure. How often does it happen that the pious ardor of the serious Christian is attributed to a zeal without knowledge-a warmth of affection unreasonable and injudicious! But as we are enjoined to love the Lord with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our strength, can the affections of our minds be too much engaged? Can we be too abstracted from the world? Too much devoted to our duty? Should we not strive to lay up treasure in heaven! in that city which hath foundation, whose builder and whose maker is God? If there is a subject calculated to excite the love of a rational intelligent, and to attract the unwearied attention of an immortal being; that subject is the salvation of our souls. When we consider the pains which our redemption produced in the mind of the Saviour; when we reflect upon his agonies, and behold him expiring upon the cross, that we might live forever; that individual who can remain cold and insensible to the emotions of piety and gratitude, can have but an

imperfect view of the obligations he is under to the God of his salvation.

The Psalm from which I have selected the text, was penned by David, at a time that he was separated from the temple of God, and denied the heart-consoling privilege of worshipping the Almighty in the midst of the great congregation. Either through the persecution of Saul, or the rebellion of his son Absalom, he had been driven into exile; the harp, with the mellifluous accents of which he had been accustomed to praise the Lord, was hung upon the willows and the recollection of his former devotions inspired his mind with the most earnest longings for a restoration to the immediate presence of God in his sanctuary. No language that he could possibly invent, possessed sufficient force to express the desires of his soul; his mind appears to have been engaged in the pursuit of some figure, by which to represent the extent of his devotional feelings. He traversed the field of nature, to select some object that might resemble the agonizing sensations of his soul, and at length fixed upon a thirsty, famishing deer, to convey in faint characters, the breathings of his mind after God. “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." He beheld in imagination the hart flying with rapid strides from the huntsmen who were pursuing her; he saw her upon the stretch, in order to escape the destructive violence which threatened her safety, and perceived her to be panting for a drop of water to cool her parched tongue, and to revive her declining strength. Exhausted with the fatigue of the chase, and almost breathless and faint with the extent of her exertion, a brook of water presents itself to view; the pleadings of nature would have induced her to stop her flight, and to quench her thirst at the gently flowing stream; but the fear of the pursuers deprived her of the gratification, and quickened her pace. The sensations which the poor animal endured at that moment, the Psalmist conceived to be in some measure descriptive of his own; her thirst for water to satisfy the cravings of exhausted nature, resembled the

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desires of his soul after God; the privation of sacred privileges under which he laboured, had increased his affection for the duty of prayer, and rendered him more anxious than ever to enter into the courts of the Lord. "My soul," says he, "is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God; Oh when shall I appear in the presence of God?" when will the period arrive that the persecution of my enemies shall cease, and I may be restored to the altars of the God of my salvation.

The holy Psalmist had experienced those divine pleasures which arise from an attendance upon the instituted means of grace; he knew that the humble supplicant, in his approaches to a throne of mercy, would meet with a welcome reception from the Almighty; and that all those who sincerely draw near to God, will find to their comfort, that the Lord will draw near to them. He wished therefore to unbosom all his cares to that Being who had watched over him from his infancy, and to thank him for his mercies in the midst of that temple where God had promised to meet and to bless his waiting people. Remember, brethren, his singleness of heart: while others thought of the world and its follies, to the exclusion of God, and the concerns of the soul, his mind was fixed on other objects. "One thing," said he, "have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple; for in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." Never do we justly estimate a blessing, until we are deprived of it; never do we know the importance of health until the hand of sickness arrests us; never do we know the value of a parent, until death hath separated us from that parent; however fervent therefore the Psalmist might have been in his devotional exercises, he could not have been perfectly alive to their importance, nor duly sensible of their value, until he was separated from the privileges of the sanctuary; then it was, that the duties of religion presented their importance full in his view; then it was, that the recollection of his