the very idea which we have extracted from our text; the very idea of a lost creature being his own tormentor, his own place of torment. There shall be needed no retinue of wrath to heap on the fuel, or tighten the rack, or sharpen the goad. He cannot escape from himself, and himself is hell. "1 We would add, that our text is not the only scriptural passage which intimates that sinfulness shall spring up into punishment, exactly as the seed sown produces the harvest. In the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs, the Eternal Wisdom marks out in terrible language the doom of the scorners: "I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." And then, when He would describe their exact punishment, He says, "they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." ."2 They reap, you see, what they sow: their torments are "their own devices." We have a similar expression in the Book of Job: "Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same. Thus again in the Book of Proverbs: "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.' "4 We may add that solemn verse in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, which seems to us exactly to the point. It is spoken in the prospect of Christ's immediate appearing. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."5 The master-property is here represented as remaining the master-property. The unjust continues for ever the unjust; the filthy for ever the filthy. So that the indulged principle keeps fast its ascendancy, as though, according to our foregoing supposition, it is to become the 3 Job. iv. 8. 5 Rev. xxii. 11. 1 Prov. i. 26. 4 Prov. xiv. 14. 2 Ibid. i. 31. tormenting principle. The distinguishing characteristic never departs. When it can no longer be served and gratified by its slave, it wreaks its disappointment tremendously on its victim. There is thus a precise agreement between our text, as now expounded, and other portions of the Bible which refer to the same topic. We have indeed, as you will observe, dealt chiefly with the sowing and the reaping of the wicked, and but just alluded to those of the righteous. It would not, however, be difficult to prove to you, that inasmuch as holiness is happiness, godliness shall be reward, even as sinfulness shall be punishment. And it is clear that the Apostle designed to include both cases under his statement; for he subjoins as its illustration, “he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." We cannot indeed plead, in the second case, for as rigid an application of the principle as in the first. We cannot argue, that is, for what we call the natural process of vegetation. There must be constant interferences on the part of Deity. God Himself, rather than man, is the sower. And unless God were continually busy with the seed, it could never germinate, and send up a harvest of glory. We think that this distinction between the cases is intimated by St. Paul. The one man sows "to the flesh;" himself the husbandman, himself the territory. The other sows "to the Spirit," to the Holy Ghost; and here there is a superinduced soil which differs altogether from the natural. But if there be not, in each case, precisely the same, there is sufficient rigour of application to bear out the assertion of our text. We remember that it was a crown of righteousness" which sparkled before 66 1 2 Tim. iv. 8. St. Paul; and we may, therefore, believe, that the righteousness, which God's grace has nourished in the heart, will grow into recompense, just as the wickedness, in which the transgressor has indulged, will shoot into torment. So that, although it were easy to speak at greater length on the case of true believers, we may lay it down as a demonstrated truth, whether respect be had to the godly or the disobedient of the earth, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." And now, what mean ye to reap in that grand harvestday, the day of judgment? Every one of you is sowing either to the flesh, or to the Spirit; and every one of you must, hereafter, take the sickle in his hand, and mow down the produce of his husbandry. We will speak no longer on things of terror. We have said enough to alarm the indifferent. And we pray God that the careless amongst you may find these words of the prophet ringing in their ears, when they lie down to rest this night, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." "1 But, ere we conclude, we would address a word to the men of God, and animate them to the toils of tillage by the hopes of reaping. We know that it is with much opposition from indwelling corruption, with many thwartings from Satan and your own evil hearts, that ye prosecute the work of breaking up your fallow ground, and sowing to yourselves in righteousness. Ye have to deal with a stubborn soil. The prophet Amos asks, "Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?" 2 Yet this is precisely what you have to do. It is the rock, "the heart of stone," which you must bring into cultivation. Yet be ye not dismayed. Above all things, pause not, as though doubtful whether to prosecute 1 Jer. viii. 20. K 2 Amos vi. 12. " a labour which seems to grow as it is performed. 3 "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven." Rather comfort yourselves with that beautiful declaration of the Psalmist, "they that sow in tears shall reap in joy." 2 Rather call to mind the saying of the Apostle, "ye are God's husbandry." It is God, who, by His Spirit, ploughs the ground, and sows the seed, and imparts the influences of sun and shower. "My Father," said Jesus, "is the husbandman; " 4 and can ye not feel assured that He will give the increase? Look ye on to the harvest-time. What though the winter be dreary and long, and there seem no shooting of the fig tree to tell you that summer is nigh? Christ shall yet speak to His Church in that loveliest of poetry, "Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land."5 Then shall be the harvest. We cannot tell you the glory of the things which ye shall reap. We cannot show you the wavings of the golden corn. But this we know, that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us ;"6 and, therefore, brethren beloved in the Lord, "be ye not weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." 7 1 Luke ix. 62. 2 Psalm cxxvi. 5. 3 2 Cor. iii. 9. 6 Rom. viii. 18. SERMON VII THE POWER OF RELIGION TO STRENGTHEN THE HUMAN INTELLECT "The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple."-PSALM CXix. 130. THERE is no point of view under which the Bible can be surveyed, and not commend itself to thinking minds as a precious and wonderful book. Travelling down to us across the waste of far-off centuries, it brings the history of times which must otherwise have been given up to conjecture and fable. Instructing us as to the creation of the magnificent universe, and defining the authorship of that rich furniture, as well material as intellectual, with which this universe is stored, it delivers our minds from those vague and unsatisfying theories which reason, unaided in her searchings, proposed with respect to the origin of all things. Opening up, moreover, a sublime and simple system of theology, it emancipates the world from degrading superstitions, which, dishonouring Deity by the representations propounded of His character, turn vice into virtue, and so banish what is praiseworthy from human society. And thus, if you kept out of sight the more important |