"The time is short; it remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none." "What have I to do any more with

idols ?"

4. Ministers.-You have good reason to love ministers, and to esteem them highly for their works' sake. They love you; they watch for your souls as they that must give an account; they bear you on their hearts; they travail in birth till Christ be formed in you; they spend and are spent for you; they often endure amazing temptations, agonies, wrestlings, for your sake.

Some have been your spiritual fathers. This is a holy tie that will never be broken. You have good reason to love your spiritual father. You may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, &c.; but ah! make not an idol of them. The people that would have worshipped Paul, were the very people that stoned him, and left him for dead. OI wish that this day may bring you so near to Christ, and so much under the love of God and the dew of Israel, that you shall no more glory in man! What have I to do any more with idols?

5. Earthly pleasures.-This is a smiling, dazzling idol, that has ten thousand worshippers, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. What have you to do any more with this idol? Sometimes it is a gross idol. The theatre is one of its temples, there it sits enthroned. The tavern is another, where its reeling, stagger ing votaries sing its praise. What have you to do with these? Have you the love of God in your soul, the Spirit of God in you? How dare you cross the threshold of a theatre or a tavern any more? What! the Spirit of God amid the wanton songs of a theatre, or the boisterous merriment of a tavern! Shame on such practical blasphemy! No; leave them, dear friends, to be cages of devils and of every unclean and hateful bird. You must never cross their threshold any more. What shall I say of games, cards, dice, dancing? I will only say this, that if you love them you have never tasted the joys of the new creature. If you feel the love of God and the Spirit, you will not lightly sin these joys away amid the vain anxieties of cards, or the rattling of senseless dice. What shall I say of simpering tea-parties, the pleasures of religious gossipping, and useless calls, without meaning, sincerity, or end? I will only say, they are the happiest of God's children who have neither time nor heart for these things. I believe there cannot be much of the Spirit where there is much of these. What shall I say of dress? A young believer, full of faith and joy, was offered a present of flowers for her hair. She would not take then. She was pressed to accept them; still she refused. Why will you not? Ah, she said, how can I wear roses on my brow, when Christ wore thorns on his? The joy of being in Christ is so sweet, that it makes all other joys insipid, dull, lifeless. In his right hand are riches and honors; in his left are length of days.

His ways are ways of pleasantness. What, then, have I to do any more with idols?

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6. Money.-Dear souls, if you have felt the love of God, the dew, you must dash down this idol. You must not love money. You must be more open-hearted, more open-handed. To the poor He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord." "Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." You must build more churches. God be praised for what has been done; but you must do far more. I have as many in this parish who go nowhere as would fill another church. You must give more to missions, to send the knowledge of Jesus to the Jews, and to the Gentile world. O how can you grasp your money in hand so greedily, while there are hundreds of millions perishing? You that give tens must give your hundreds. You that are poor must do what you can. Remember Mary, and the widow's mite. Let us resolve to give the tenth of all we have to God. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having allsufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

7. Fear of man.-Grim idol, bloody mouthed; many souls he has devoured and trampled down into hell! His eyes are full of hatred to Christ's disciples. Scoffs and jeers lurk in his eye. The laugh of the scorner growls in his throat. Cast down this idol. This keeps some of you from secret prayer, from worshipping God in your family, from going to lay your case before ministers, from openly confessing Christ. You that have felt God's love and Spirit, dash this idol to pieces. Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die? Fear not, thou worm Jacob. What have I to do any more with idols?

Dearly-beloved and longed-for, my heart's desire for you is, to see you a holy people. How much longer my ministry may be continued among you God only knows; but if God give me health and grace among you, I here willingly devote my all to him. No moment, no pleasure, no ease, no wealth, do I wish for myself. I feel that he has bought me, and I am his property. O come, give yourselves to the Lord with me. Bind yourselves to the horns of God's altar. Time past is enough to have been the devil's, the world's, our own. Now, let us be Christ's alone. Are you willing? Lord, bear witness; seal it in heaven; write it in thy book. Bear witness, angels, devils, scowling world, bear witness, sun and moon, bear witness, stones and timber, bear witness, Jesus, Lamb of God! We are thine now, and thine for ever. What have we to do any more with idols?

25th Oct., 1840.

ADDRESS.

AFTER THE COMMUNION.

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."-Jude 20-21.

I. Those that have been built on Christ have need to build themselves still more on Christ.-If you come rightly to this table, you have been hewn out of the rock, and carried, and laid on the sure foundation. Others set at naught that stone, but to you it is the only name under heaven. You have been built on Christ alone for righteousness. Think not all is done, forget what is behind. You have begun salvation, work out your salvation.

1. Build yourselves more simply on Christ, on Christ alone, his blood and righteousness. Some are like a stone resting half on the foundation and half on the sand. Some take half their peace from Christ's finished work, and half from the Spirit's work within them. Now the whole of our justification must be from Christ alone. Other foundation can no man lay.

2. Build yourselves more surely on Christ. Some stones do not lie smoothly on the foundation, they are apt to totter. Seek, brethren, to get a sure founding on the Lord Jesus Christ. "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." It is easy to sail with a gentle sea and the wind in the west, but the gale tries whether the ship be rightly balanced. It is easy to believe in a sunny day like this, when broken bread and poured out wine have been in your hands; but stop till you are in the wilderness, or afar at sea alone, stop till fresh guilt lies on the conscience, stop till a strong temptation blows; Ŏ then to rely on Christ alone for righteousness! Under a sight of sin, Satan grappling with the soul; O then to look up into the face of Christ and say, Thou art my robe, my righteousness, my shield, thy blood, thy obedience is enough for me! this is to believe.

II. Pray in the Holy Ghost.-When a believer prays he is not alone, there are three with him, the Father seeing in secret, his ear open; the Son blotting out sin, and offering up the prayer; the Holy Ghost quickening and giving desires. There can be no true prayer without these three. Some people pray like a parrot, repeating words when the heart is far from God. Some pray without the Father. They do not feel. They are speaking to the back of their chair, or to the world, or to the empty air. Some pray without the Son. They come in their own name; in their own righteousness. That is the sacrifice of fools. Some pray without the Holy Ghost. These are not filled with divine breathings. Dear friends, if you would live, you must pray; and if you

would pray with acceptance, you must pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, and by his Spirit quickening.

1. Get the Holy Ghost.-Many seem not to know if there be a Holy Spirit. Jesus being raised by the Father, has obtained the Spirit. Ask him.

2. Let him breathe within you. Do not vex him.

3. Pray without ceasing.-Whatever you need, ask him immediately. Have set times of approaching God solemnly. Let nothing interfere with these times. Take your best time.

III. Keep yourselves in the love of God.-It is when you are built on Christ, and praying in the Holy Ghost, that you keep yourselves in the love of God. There is one glorious Being whom God loves infinitely. "I am not alone, for the Father is with me." He loved him from eternity, for the pure, spotless image of himself. He loved him for laying down his life. He is well pleased for his righteousness' sake. The eye of the all-perfect One rests with perfect complacency on him. Have you this day come into Christ-this day come under his shield-are this day found in him? If you are in the love of God, keep yourselves there.

1. Care not for the love of the world.-If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Its best smiles are little worth. The world is a dying thing-a crucified man to them that are in Christ.

2. Prize the love of God.-Oh it is sweet to be in the garden of spices-to have God for your refuge-God rejoicing over you. 1st, This takes all the sting away from affliction. God is love to me. The hand that wounds is the gentlest and most loving. 2d, This takes their sting from the world's reproaches. 3d, This makes death sweet. It is a leap into the arms of infinite love, though to some a leap into a dark eternity. O keep yourselves in the love of God.

IV. Looking for mercy.-You will be incomplete Christians if you do not look for the coming again of the Lord Jesus. If the Table has been sweet to-day, what will it be when Jesus comes again to receive us to himself? If his love-letters and love-tokens, sent from a far country, be so sweet, what will the Bridegroom himself be when he comes and takes us by the hand to present us to himself, and acknowledge us before an assembled world?

1. You will get an open acquittal on that day.-Now he gives us sweet acquittal at the bar of conscience: he says, "Peace be unto you." But when it is open, we shall wear the blood-washed robe. It will need to be mercy even at that day.

2. Perfect deliverance from sin.-Now he gives us the victory by faith. He gives us to feel the thorn, and to look up for grace sufficient. Then he will take the thorn away. We shall be like Jesus in soul and body. O be casting sweet looks of love towards

that day. When a child is expecting an elder brother's return, when he is to bring some gift, how often he runs to the window and watches for his coming. Your elder brother is coming with a sweet gift. O cast your eye often towards the clouds, to see if they will break and let his beautiful feet through! Shorten the time by anticipation.

3. Jesus no more dishonored.-Honor to the Lamb is a sweet mercy to a believing soul. A high day like this, when Jesus gets many a crown cast at his feet, is sweet to a believing soul. How much more the day when we shall wear his full crown, and when the slain lamb shall be fully praised; and when he shall come to be glorified, who once came to be spit upon. That truly shall be mercy to our poor soul. Our cup shall run over. 3d January, 1841.

SERMON XXVII.

TURN YOU AT MY REPROOF.

"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief places of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners, delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."-Prov. i., 20-23.

THAT none other than our Lord Jesus Christ is intended to be painted to us under the majestic figure of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs, is evident from the passage before us. Of whom but the Saviour could it be said so truly that he stood with outstretched hands in the streets, in the markets, and in the openings of the gates, crying after the simple ones-the publicans and sinners; and the scorners-the Scribes and Pharisees; and those haters of knowledge-the Jewish priesthood? And again, of whom but the Saviour could it be said, with any truth at all, that he offered to "pour out his Spirit upon the returning sinner, and to make known his words unto him?" Christ alone" hath ascended up on high, leading captivity captive; and hath received gifts for men, yea, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among

them."

Before pressing home upon you, brethren, this earnest and soulpiercing call of the Saviour, there are two explanations which I anxiously desire you to bear in mind-First, That the call of the Saviour, in the words before us, and the promise with which it is accompanied, are addressed to sinners, and not to saints. Nay more, they are not addressed to all sinners promiscuously; they