could we have experienced-should we, perhaps, have had opportunities, by personal experience of knowing so fully and distinctly this faithfulness, unless by our own personal experience we had been brought into those peculiar cases, and placed under those especial circumstances, in which that faithfulness of GoD might be best tried and exhibited.

But this brings me to notice, lastly, THAT THE WAITING CHRISTIAN

WILL BE BROUGHT BY PERSONAL EXPE

people-how great and mighty is that covenant into which he has entered?He undertakes no less than the eternal salvation of man's soul-it is that. And in order that that may be secured, it may not unfrequently be necessary to recall the mind by trial, sorrow, or affliction. Man by nature wanders from GoD, man by nature goes astray from him; and even, when brought back and placed in the fold, the heart naturally wanders off, earthly trifles engross, and worldly affections occupy the soul, the faith grows languid, and the love waxes feeble. And how is that faith to be rekindled, and how is that love to be lighted up, and how is that dim burning torch to be made more brightly to shine? Is it not by those afflictions, and those trials which may try our faith, may drive us to GOD, may draw us from the creature, may show us the emptiness of man and the all sufficiency of Christ? And thus we find the favoured servants of GOD at various times, and in various manners, so tried, Abraham the father of the faithful, shall pass through a scene of no common and ordinary trial, ere he become a partaker of the divine promises. St. Paul shall have his "thorn in the flesh;" and while permitted, in a peculiar manner, to become a champion for the faith of Christ, he shall, on the other hand, be kept low in affliction, shall learn that it is neces-tening for the present seemeth to be sary to bear reproach, nay, shall not be relieved though twice petitions for it, in order that he may know this one all important truth, and feel it by experience (which he could have learnt and felt by no other discipline)-" My grace is sufficient for thee."

--

And is it not, moreover, at these seasons, that the grace and the proLecting mercy of God is more fully exhibited? Should we have known

RIENCE TO RECOGNISE AND ACKNOW-
You
LEDGE THE TRUTH OF THIS,
observe that the psalmist in our text
had been brought to this point. Re-
ligion with him was no mere matter
of history or problematical theory :—
"I know, O Lord, that thy judgments
are right, and that thou in faithful-
ness hast afflicted me." Often did
David pass through scenes of trial,
often was David called to know
and to feel the necessity of a divine
power, and a divine hand; and, there-
fore, he could feelingly and experi-
mentally declare his knowledge of
the faithfulness and the truth of
GOD. Nor shall it be confined to
him, others shall likewise know his
faithfulness; and though at first,
perhaps, certain dispensations shall
appear difficult to understand, as
to what may be the design of Pro-
vidence in them, and though, as
the apostle expresses it, “No chas-

joyous, but grievous," yet to believers still we have at once the promise and the personal experience, that it shall" afterwards yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

Let us, then, notice one or two of those points in which the christian may be brought himself to recognise and acknowledge the faithfulness of God in affliction, And, first, it exhibits to him the power of divine

grace in that support and strength which is vouchsafed to him in time of trial. May I not be addressing some who have experienced this in themselves? May I not be speaking to those who, in anticipation of some peculiar trial, have shrunk back with timidity and alarm, who have conceived that their strength was too feeble, and their faith was too weak to sustain them amid the impending storm; and when that storm lowered and fell, and when that threatening tempest descended upon them, an arm was held out to support, and divine grace vouchsafed, so that they were enabled to sing amid the storm, rejoice in trial, and to feel with one of old-" When I am weak then am I strong."

and thus is the faithfulness, love, grace, and mercy of his God exhibited unto him.

Again, times of bereavement, sorrow, and affliction, present to the mind in strong and vivid colours the infinite importance of eternal views. My brethren, there are moments, indeed, in the ordinary course of life, in which the mind reverts, perhaps with peculiar emphasis, to the all importance of eternity as contrasted with time; but it is when death is brought near to our own door, when the last enemy is entering our own domestic circle, when we are called upon from time to time to follow some near and beloved relative to the last receptacle of expired nature; these, I say, are the times when the earth fades from view, when eternity opens to the mind with expansive and indescribable force, when we are brought in some little measure to contrast and compare this world with the next, time with eternity. For what, at that moment, is the vanity of the creature, what the value of earthly things, what the importance of station, rank, or influence here, when contrasted with that one infinitely momentous point-the value of the soul, the security of the immortal spirit for its eternal abode?

Again, affliction drives to the throne of grace. This is an all-important point, in which the christian will be brought to recognise the faithfulness of God in affliction. When is it, my brethren, that the throne of grace is most unfrequently approached? When is it that we are the most careless and the most remiss in prayer? Ah, is it not in moments of apparent prosperity, when health and strength and domestic comforts abound, when our mountain seems to stand strong, and no impending storm lowers? is not that the moment of spiritual decay, is not that the moment when the arts of the tempter have the most prevailed, and when faith and love and devotion wither and fade? But when God is pleased to change the scene, when in the course of provi-mitted to see the sanctified effects dence some peculiarly painful or afflictive duty is presented before us, the christian flies again to his GOD, he feels his weakness, he knows his wants, he is conscious, perhaps, of decay. This drives him to prayer, this leads him nearer to his GOD, he frequents with greater earnestness the neglected footstool of mercy;

And then, I would mention further, as a point connected with this subject, that these seasons exhibit the mercy of God in the blessed results of affliction. Ah, my brethren, when we are per

of trial, pain, and suffering, accompanied with that inward blessing to the soul, and that sanctified effect upon the heart and conscience! it is this which presents in strong and vivid colours, that God's judgments are indeed good, and that in very faithfulness does he afflict us. How many a hardened stubborn heart,

which nothing else could have softened, has been broken beneath the rod of affliction! How many a careless and wandering sheep has been brought back under the afflictive hand of GOD! How many of those who, perhaps as far as human judgment could conceive, would otherwise have died as they lived-careless, unholy, and forgetful of their GOD-have been brought to enquire, reflect, examine, and to seek mercy at a throne of grace, in moments of nature's anguish, in seasons when earthly things have closed from their view, and the mind been lifted up in silent retirement to meditate upon GOD and eternity.

waters of trial! My brethren, this will be our lot:-" whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." "Let us not think it strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try us, as though some strange thing happened to us." Nay, it is the very ordinance of GoD, it is the very appointment of his mercy, it is one of the clearest and fullest marks of his grace, mercy, and love.

I will only notice in conclusion these two points. In the first place, the subject before us exhibits—the fearful and affecting consequences of sin. My brethren, what was it that fixed the root of trouble in this lower world? What was it that first planted the seedling from which this wide spreading noxious tree has been ever growing? Sin was the cause of it all. "Sin has entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Had sin never entered, judgment and chastisement had never been heard of; a sinless world had needed no judgment, a pure and holy race had wanted no chastisement. But the crown is fallen from our heads, man is born a sinner, man strays from his GOD, wanders in forbidden paths. And how is the wanderer to be reclaimed? A rod of

I would only add, as a concluding reflection on this part of our subject, that it will be that eternal and unchangeable state to which we are all hastening, that the faithfulness of God and the justice of God in his judgments and afflictions, will be most fully and clearly exhibited. Here below, indeed, we are enabled from time to time, to catch no very indistinct glimpses of the designs of Providence, and his faithfulness in the dispensations of his hand. But, if permitted to meet in that eternal abode above-if permitted to assemble around the throne of GOD with those countless myriads who have come out of great tribula-correction must be found for him, tion, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb-there, in far fuller and more expansive and unlimited manner, shall we be able to take up with angelic tongue and expanded mind, the language of my text: "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me." How many afflicted Christians there rest in peace! How many of those who shall hereafter reach that blessed abode, will have to pass through the

infinite mercy and love must be combined with justice, chastisement, and trial.

And, then, finally, the subject before us exhibits in a peculiar manner, the infinite value of the pardoning love of Christ, Ah, my brethren, we often speak of that subject; we all profess to believe in the power and efficacy of the blood of Christ which cleanses from sin; but it is in moments of expiring nature-it is in those scenes of peculiar affliction when flesh and heart fail, when the world

is receding from view, and all things
are beginning to appear in their real
and native nothingness, that the in-
finite value of the Saviour presents
itself to the mind. What is a dying
sinner to do without an all-sufficient
and ever living Saviour? And there
is an all-sufficiency for every stain
and dye, however deep; there is the
expanded and unlimited promise,
"Him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out." May that promise
be ours for time and eternity; may
so live, and walk with GOD

we

here, in faith, love, and Christian devotedness; and may our trials and afflictions, be so sanctified and blessed to our hearts and souls, that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved-when all now assembled in this house of prayer are laid with the silent dead, and the place that now knows us, shall know us no more-we may have a hope full of immortality, and enjoy that inheritance incompatible undefiled and that fadeth not away, prepared for those who love Christ our Lord.

A Sermon,

DELIVERED BY THE REV.

GRANT,

AT ST. PANCRAS, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 6, 1833.

Matthew, xxii. 45.--" If David then called him Lord, how is He his son ?"

St. Matthew and St. Luke seem to have been carefully preserved in order to establish this pedigree; and the story of Ruth, the interesting ancestress of David, was introduced as part of the canonical Scriptures with the same intent, namely, although the pedigree of our Saviour was traced up to Abraham and to Adam, still it should pass through the intermediate link of David. The first words of the New Testament, the opening of St. Matthew's Gospel, are thus,"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the Son of David." And the angel of the Lord addresses Joseph:

AMONG the various characters and titles by which the Messiah is distinguished in the Old Testament, that of the Son or the descendant of David is not the least remarkable. This descent had been foretold by several of the prophets, and particularly by Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to the former, "the everlasting Father the prince of peace," was to sit on the throne of David. "Behold the days come," says the latter," when I will raise unto David a righteous branch which shall be called the Lord our righteousness." Ezekiel in four passages-and Ezekiel lived four hundred years after David was dead," Joseph, thou Son of David." That identifies the promise applied, in a spiritual figure, to David himself. "I will set up one shepherd, even my servant David; and he shall be a prince and a king for ever." Both the genealogies of Christ recorded by

this notion of Christ was universal among the Jews is evident from many passages of the New Testament. The aged Simeon on receiving the Saviour, blessed the Lord God of Israel for having raised up a horn of salvation

the Pharisees to this very point. He asks them in the temple, "How say the Scribes," or the expounders of the law, "that Christ is the Son of David," seeing that David, filled with the Holy Ghost, described the Messiah under the character of his Lord?

in the house of his servant David. The two blind men who sought to recover their sight, conjured our Lord by the title, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." And when he made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the multitude bearing palms before him, exclaimed, "Ho-"If David then," says he, " call him sauna to the Son of David.” And in Jerusalem, on the great day of the feast of the tabernacle when some of the people declared-" Of a truth this is the prophet that should come into the world," others objected, believing Christ to be by birth and by domicile a Galilean, "Hath not the Scriptures said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and of the town of Bethlehem where David was."

It is clear then that, wherever the Messiah should appear the title of the Son, or descendant of David, was generally believed by the Jews, and was understood between them and our Lord conventually as an axiom or established principle, to be one of the leading features by which our Lord should be known.

But, now, there are other parts of Scripture in which the promised Messiah is spoken of, nay, spoken of by David himself, as higher, more powerful, and more ancient, than David himself. These, a people of grovelling thoughts, and unenlightened understanding, and cherished prejudices, found it convenient to overlook; yet they could not deny that the psalms of David were inspired portions of the sacred writings: they allowed them to be prophetic. If pressed in argument, therefore, on these seeming contradictions they were brought to a nonplus, they were unable to reconcile the two clashing descriptions of their Messiah. We read in the context, and the fact is related by three of the Evangelists, that our Lord took occasion to bring

Lord, how is he David's Son?" How can he be, at once, an ancestor and a descendant? How can a superior and an inferior title, centre in the same individual? "And no man was able to answer him a word.” They could not, the difficulty was to them inseparable.

Now the inference and the moral to be derived from the narrative before us is this:-that DIFFICULTIES IN DOCTRINE OR IN SCRIPTURE, ARE NOT TO BE URGED AS GROUNDS FOR REJECTING THAT DOCTRINE, OR THAT SCRIPTURE.

For, first, there may be a key to these difficulties, although our want of reason, our want of opportunity, our want of full information, our want of disposition to enquire, or our prejudices, or our hindrances, or our imperfect judgments may not yet have obtained that key.

Secondly, GOD may have wise reasons for withholding this explanation for a season.

And, thirdly, experience of the past may teach us to suspend our curiosity, yet with full confidence in God, to a period of more ample knowledge.

First, I say, there may be a key to any apparent contradiction, or any difficulty, though we may not happen to have discovered it. There was such a key in the very case before us; and that key is as the union of divine and human natures in Christ. He was David's son by his earthly pedigree, he was David's Lord as a heavenly descendant: he was David's son as born of the lineage of David;