To him be glory! Worthy is the Lamb! All the struggles of a self-righteous soul are to put the crown on your own head instead of at the feet of Jesus.

2. Broken from love of sin.- When a man believes on Christ, he then sees sin to be hateful. 1st, It separated between him and God, made the great gulf, and kindled the fires of hell. 2d, It crucified the Lord of Glory; weighed down his soul; made him sweat, and bleed, and die. 3d, It is the plague of his heart now. All my unhappiness is from my being a sinner.

mourns sore like a dove, that he should sin against so much love. "Then shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight."

IV. Advantages of a broken heart.

1. It keeps you from being offended at the preaching of the Cross. -A natural heart is offended every day at the preaching of the Cross. Many of you, I have no doubt, hate it. The preaching of another's righteousness-that you must have it or perishmany, I have no doubt, are often enraged at this in their hearts. Many, I doubt not, have left this church on account of it, and many more, I doubt not, will follow. All the offence of the Cross is not ceased. But a broken heart cannot be offended. Ministers cannot speak too plainly for a broken heart. A broken heart would sit for ever to hear of the righteousness without works.

Many of you are offended when we preach plainly against sin. Many were offended last Sabbath. But a broken heart cannot be offended, for it hates sin worse than ministers can make it. Many are like the worshippers of Baal-" Bring forth thy son that he may die," Judges vi., 30. But a broken heart loves to see the idol stamped upon and beaten small.

2. A broken heart is at rest.—The unconverted heart is like the troubled sea--" Who will show us any good?" It is going from creature to creature. The awakened soul is not at rest; sorrows of death, pains of hell, attend those who are forgetting their resting place. But the broken heart says, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." The righteousness of Christ takes away every fearcasts out fear." Even the plague of the heart cannot truly disturb, for he casts his burden on Jesus.

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3. Nothing can happen wrong to it.-To the unconverted, how dreadful is a sick bed, poverty, death-tossed like a wild beast in a net! But a broken heart is satisfied with Christ. This is enough he has no ambition for more. Take away all, this re

mains. He is a weaned child.

SERMON XVII.

"The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born: speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."-Psalm lviii., 3-5.

It has been supposed by some interpreters that this psalm was written as a prophetic description of the unjust judges who condemned our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. It begins by reproving them for their unjust judgment. Verse 1, "Do ye indeed," &c. 2. It opens up the dark recesses of their heart and history; verse 3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb;" &c. And 3. It shows their coming destruction; verse 10, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." However this may be, they were of the same nature with us. The Scribes and Pharisees who condemned our Lord had hearts of the same kind as ours, so that we may learn this day the awful depravity of the heart of man.

I. Original depravity.-Verse 3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb." The expression, "from the womb," occurs frequently in Scripture, and means from the very first period of our existence. The angel of the Lord said to the wife of Manoah, Judges xiii., 5, "The child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb;" that is, from the very first point of existence. God says to Jeremiah (i. 5), " Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou comest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah was set apart as a prophet before he was born. Paul says, Gal. i., 15," But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me.' Paul was set apart by God for the work of the ministry from the very first. So, in the words before us, it is declared that from the very first we are estranged from God. Now, this estrangement is twofold.

1. Of the head.-The whole mind is estranged from God. "At that time ye were without God." The natural man is ignorant of God from the very womb. God is a stranger to him, so that he does not know him. He has no true discovery of God's infinite purity, of his immutable justice, and of the strictness of the law. He does not know the love of God, nor how freely he has provided a Saviour. He is mainly ignorant of God. Psalm x. 4, "God is not in all his thoughts." Either he does not turn his mind upon God at all, or else he thinks him altogether such an one as himself. "There is none that understandeth." Psalm xiv., 2.

2. Of the heart.-A new born child will naturally feel after its mother's breast: it naturally seeks the breast. But it does not in

the same manner seek after God. "There is none that seekcth after God." From the very first we dislike God. A child soon comes to relish the presence of its earthly parents, and of other children. It does not relish the presence of God. The natural tendency of the heart is to go away from God, and to remain out of his sight. A natural man does not like the presence of a very eminent saint. If he has full liberty, he will leave the room, and seck other company more suited to his taste. This is the very way he treats God. God is too holy for him; he is too pure, and, therefore, he does all he can to leave his company. This is the reason you cannot get unconverted men to pray in secret. They would rather spend half an hour in the tread-mill every morning than go to meet God. This is the true condition of every one of you who is now unconverted; indeed it was the condition of us all, but some of you have been brought out of it. From the time you were in the womb, till now, your whole head and heart have been turned away from God. Gen. viii., 21, "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," &c. Job xiv., 4, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one?" Your whole nature is totally depraved. You are accustomed to think that you have some parts good; that though some part was depraved, yet some part sick, the whole heart is faint. Your whole history remained sound; but learn that the whole head is covered with sin. You are accustomed to think that great part of your life has been innocent. You admit that some pages of your life are stained with crimson and scarlet sins; some pages you blush to look back upon; but surely you have some fair leaves also. Learn that you are "estranged from the womb." Every moment you have spent without God, and turning away from God; every page has got this written at the top of it, This day God was not in all his thoughts, he did not like to retain God in his knowledge. Genesis vi., 5, "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

II. Actual sin; "They go astray," &c.-There are two paths from which every natural man goes astray as soon as born.

1. The way of God's commandments.-This is the pure way of light in which holy angels walk. They do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word, Ps. ciii. It is a pure way. having ten paths in which the feet of the upright love to go. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight." From this we go astray as soon as born, speaking lies. One of these paths says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor;" but this is one of the very first that is forsaken; speaking lies; Isaiah liii., 6, “We all like sheep have gone astray, turning every one to his own way."

2. The way of pardon.-Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way;"

and again," "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life." The same, Isaiah xxxv., 9, " The redeemed shall walk there." From this way also "they go astray as soon as born, speaking lies." Life is given to sinners just that they may enter upon this way, but they spend it in going further and further away. The parable of the lost sheep shows the true state of every unconverted soul wandering away from the good shepherd. He is seeking to save the lost; you are wandering further and further away. Romans iii., 12, "They are all gone out of the way." "Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known." And oh! what fearful meaning does this give to the declaration " speaking lies!" for it is written, 1 John ii., 22," Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" And again, "He that believeth not God, hath made God a liar." No man can go away from Christ without speaking lies.

Learn, the fearful condition of those of you who are natural men. 1st, From the day you were born you have gone astray from the path of God's commandments. Every year, month, week, day, hour, minute, has been filled up with sin. Every day has seen you go further from holiness, further from God, nearer to hell. You are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Oh! what a treasure; keeping up fuel to burn you through eternity. If any of you live in drinking or swearing, or any one sin, you are heaping up fuel for your eternal hell. You are getting further on in your sin. You are wreathing your chains more and more round you. By a law of human nature, every time you sin, the habit becomes stronger, so that you are every day becoming more completely like the devil. It is every day more hard to turn. Experience shows that most people are converted when Dear young people, every day you live in sin it will be young. more impossible to turn. "They that seek me early shall find

me."

2d, From the day you were born you have gone astray from Christ. The good shepherd has been seeking you. Every day you remain unsaved, you are wandering away from him. Every day you are getting nearer to hell and further from Christ. Unbelief gets stronger every day.

III. The deadly enmity of natural men to God—" Their poison," &c. For two reasons:

1. Because they are the children of the old serpent, the devil.All natural men are the seed of the serpent. See Gen. iii, 15. All who oppose and dislike the children of God, do so because they are the seed of the serpent, and the poison of the old serpent remains in them. John the Baptist calls the Pharisees a generation of vipers, Matt. iii., 7, "O generation of vipers." In a still more dreadful manner did our blessed Lord, Matt. xxiii., 33, “Ye

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serpents, ye generation of, vipers." The Pharisees and Sadducees were not of a different nature from us; they had the same flesh and blood, and the same wicked heart; they were children of their father, the devil, and the lusts of their father they would do: "Their poison was like the poison of a serpent."

2. Because they have a mortal enmity to God.-The poison of the serpent is deadly poison. When it darts its envenomed sting. into a man it seeks to kill him. Such is the cruel venom of the natural heart against God. He is a mortal enemy to God's holy government. It has been said, "If the throne of God were within your reach, and you knew, it would not be safe one hour." He is a mortal enemy to the very being of God. Psalm xiv., 1, "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." It is in his heart he says this; this is the secret desire of every unconverted bosom. If the breast of God were within the reach of men, it would be stabbed a million of times in one moment. When God was manifest in the flesh, he was altogether lovely; he did no sin; he went about continually doing good: and yet they took him and hung him on a tree; they mocked him and spit upon him. And this is the way men would do with God again.

Learn-1st, The fearful depravity of your heart. I venture to say there is not an unconverted man present who has the most distant idea of the monstrous wickedness that is now within his breast. Stop till you are in hell, and it will break out unrestrained. But still let me tell you what it is; you have a heart that would kill God if you could. If the bosom of God were now within your reach, and one blow would rid the universe of God, you have a heart fit to do the deed. 2d, The amazing love of Christ; "While we were enemies, Christ died for us."

IV. Deaf to the voice of the Gospel. It is a well known fact that many kinds of serpents can be tamed by the power of music. This is referred to in Ecclesiastes x., 11, and Jeremiah viii., 17. Many travellers in Egypt and India have seen this. But there is said to be one kind of serpent which is either deaf, so that it cannot hear the music, or it has the power of making itself deaf for the time, so that it is not charmed. So it is with unconverted

men.

Christ is the great charmer. His voice is like the sound of many waters. Never man spake like this man. When Andrew and Peter heard it, they left all and followed him; so did James, and John, and Matthew. When the bride hears him, she cries, The voice of my beloved! When the sheep hear his voice, they follow him; when the dead hear his voice, they live; when the heavy laden hear it, they find rest.

But unconverted men will not hear. They are like Manasseh; they will not hearken; they are like the Jews when Stephen preached, they stopped their ears and ran.