with the pure water of the fountain that refreshes all around. In fact, the name of believer, be the profession, the knowledge of such a person, what they may, is utterly misplaced-he belongs to that class who "profess that they know God, while in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate ;" and he will find, if not before, yet in the great and final day, when Christ will confess or deny men before his Father, as they confessed or denied him upon earth-that neither did his lips confess to righteousness, nor his heart believe to salvation-that his confession resembled that of the devils rather than of the saints-that neither did God ever dwell in him, nor shall he ever dwell in God. Listen then, brethren, to the voice that you will soon cease to hear, when it calls upon you to ascertain, once for all, whether you have yet witnessed a good confession-whether you have yet practically acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God. O be not content with entertaining sound and scriptural opinions on this vitally important doctrine: but ask, since you know Jesus to be divine, what He is to you?-for the Godhead that empowers him to save, arms him also to punish to the uttermost. There is a point beyond which mercy must droop her pleading eye, and hush her imploring accents-when justice succeeds, bearing the scales, in which the weight of sin cannot be held in equipoise, or rather be made to ascend by the preponderating merit of Christ;-bearing too the sword that cannot be sheathed-and, oh! beware that you pass not that fatal point; and that you may not pass it, delay not, even for an hour, the great work of your reconciliation with God. He is now waiting to be gracious-now ready to have mercy-now pleased to be propitiated— now prepared to pardon: but how soon may the shadows of a hopeless, endless night, close the day of salvation! How soon may the Sun of righteousness be eclipsed for ever to those who will not live and rejoice in its ray! How soon may the God who is now willing to dwell with you, and permit you to dwell with him, close against you the portal of his Paradise, even as the door of your heart is closed against him, and consign you to outer darkness, where there is "wailing and gnashing of teeth!" O, if you would avoid this fearful and final condemnation, do not trifle with opportunities-do not suppress convictions-do not stake the soul on what is little better than the cast of a die; namely, the duration of human lifebe prompt in making the good confession. If you find difficulty, ask, and ask again for the aid of the Holy Spirit; and if you receive it not at once, ask and ask again, till the difficulty be overcome; and when it is overcome, ask and ask again lest it should return-live asking-let prayer be the work of every day. You think it little to labour daily for this world's good-will you think it much to labour daily for the good of the soul? O may none of us ever find bitter reason to curse his folly, in rejecting a costlier gift than all the treasures of the earth-a gift that could only be purchased by the blood of God, and bestowed by the hand of God, and made effective by the grace of God; but may we with one mind and one mouth confess and that not with our lips only but in our lives-that "Jesus is the Son of God;" so shall we be heirs of the promise, and “God shall dwell in us, and we shall dwell in God." SERMON XVI. JESUS MANIFESTED BY THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST*. JOHN XIV, 22. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world ?" It was a judicious and penetrating observer of human nature, as well as one deeply versed in the mysteries of divine revelation, to whom we are indebted for that clue to so many intricacies, that key to so much that would otherwise be perplexing and abstruse, both in the character and conduct of mankind, which is afforded us in the simple sentence-"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." One of the difficulties to which it affords a ready and obvious solution, to say nothing of all the rest, is, the apparent inaptitude- -we might almost say obtuseness-which even the Apostles repeatedly * Whitsunday. displayed in apprehending the words of their heavenly Master, even though he spake as never man spake. Thus, on the occasion now before us, when Christ said, "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him"- the words certainly do not appear to involve any peculiar degree of mystery; yet one of the apostles asks-as Nicodemus had asked on a former occasion, "How can these things be?"-"Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world." Nor is there the slightest reason to infer, that any of St. Jude's colleagues had formed more elevated or expanded notions of the power of their Lord than himself; the question rather, though proposed by one, seems to have expressed the common sense and sentiment of all. How then, we may appropriately inquire, how could it happen, after so long, and so constant, yea, such intimate communion with the Teacher of heavenly wisdom, that they should still be so comparatively uninformed—so liable to be perplexed and discouraged and distracted by the slightest difficulty? The reason may be stated in a few words. They were still natural men-they had not yet, in the full sense, been "born again, born of the Spirit," and consequently their hearts were Ꮓ |