gressors is hard," yet show no disposition to get out of that way. Yea, though continually disappointed in their efforts, they seek happiness by unholy means, till the lamp of life is extinguished and an end is put to their career. Oh, how many instances are there where disappointments have been vain: that is, they have produced in mankind no moral effect. Thus Isaiah says, "The people turneth not to Him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts." Thus Jeremiah says, "O Lord, Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return." What a number of articles does the prophet Amos mention with regard to suffering being useless! "Hear this word, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God. I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew ; when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your houses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." Here we see the depravity of human nature in rendering inefficacious all these divine chastisements, and when this is the case there is a danger of one of these two things either that God in anger will throw down the rod, saying, "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone;" or that He will fulfil His own threatenings. "If ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins;" "and if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins."

:

My brethren, "God does not grieve or afflict willingly the chil

dren of men." He has a mercful design in all your crosses and trials and afflictions. He hath said, "By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin." His design is to lead us to say with David, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted;" and when these dispensations are thus sanctified, the man in unison with our text will say, “What have I any more to do with idols? I have suffered enough from them; they have all smitten me; and now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee." Thus the prodigal was starved back. "He began to be in want"—and it was a blessed want that led him to think of his father's home, and resolved him to return. You have no reason to complain if, when your earthly props have been taken away, you have been induced to take fresh hold of God.

II. Let us consider wHAT IS SAID OF THEIR RENEWED EXPERIENCE: but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel." We have only time to glance at three views of it.

First, it is enlightened. Confidence is the offspring both of ignorance and wisdom; but the one is the confidence of a fool, the other the confidence of a wise man, for who but a fool would pass over a deep river upon a plank before he had ascertained whether the wood were rotten or sound? Who would entrust a precious deposit to a stranger, or to a suspicious character? Paul did not, and therefore said, "I know whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Therefore said David, "They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee." This accords with every part of religion, for whatever the world may think of it, it is a most "reasonable service." A Christian could not have stayed upon God without a discovery of His character; he could not have stayed upon such a Being whom he had offended unless He had given him an assurance that He was willing to receive him graciously. But this has been the case. God has given us a revelation of Himself in which He says, "Take hold of My strength, and ye shall make peace with Me." God's power, His wisdom, His faithfulness, His truth, and even His holiness and righteousness, all become vouchers to encourage and confirm our confidence in Him.

Secondly, this confidence is very extensive; how extensive may be inferred from the language of David, "Trust in Him at all times, ye people;" and from the admonition of Isaiah, "Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord is everlasting

strength." This confidence reaches to all the events that can awaken our anxiety. It pervades every condition in which we can be found; it regards all that appertains to life and godliness, not only grace, but glory; it has a respect, not only to our journey's end, but also to the way. The first and grand thing for which we have to trust God is eternal life the glorification of the soul at death, and of the body at the resurrection. This to the humble believer seems too much to hope for from a Being he has so often offended. "But this is the record, that God has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." When we are brought to trust in Him for this, surely we shall trust in Him for everything else. One might imagine this would be easy, but it is very difficult to trust Him with all our concerns; yet there are moments in which the Christian is enabled to do this, and when reflecting upon His care in providence, he can say, "I can trust in Him for everything."

"Our cares, we give you to the wind,
And shake you off like dust;

Well may we trust our all with Him
With whom our souls we trust."

Thirdly, it is a blessed confidence. Solomon says, "The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." So David says, "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever." That is, the man has now a rock to rest on, not a bed of sand; he has now a fountain of living waters, and drinks no longer at the broken cistern. Nor is this all; for says Isaiah, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." What a life does he now live! "Blessed is the man," says Jeremiah, "that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the day of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

III. Let us consider THE REALITY OF THEIR CHANGE. "They shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth." Ah! this is the thing: "He requireth truth in the inward parts." Everything is counterfeited, and there is a special imitation of every moral excellence, and of every Christian grace. When it is said that they "shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth," there is an intima

tion that this shall not be the case. is distinguishable from two things.

This confidence therefore

First, they "shall stay upon the Lord," in distinction from mere pretensions. There are those who profess to know God, but in works deny Him. It seems strange that persons should act the hypocrite here, for what do they gain? "What is the hope of the hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul?" If they impose upon themselves, they cannot impose upon God, who "is greater than their heart, and knoweth all things."

Secondly, they "shall stay upon the Lord," in distinction from imaginary confidence. Persons may not endeavour to deceive others, yet they may deceive themselves. Thus Solomon says, "There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." While this is entirely the case with regard to some, it is so in a degree with regard to others. An instance of this we have in our Lord's disciples; for after He had made a fuller discovery of Himself, He asked them, "Do ye now believe?" You say so, and you think so, but fancy is not reality; you may be mistaken, but I have a better knowledge of you than you have of yourselves. You say you may believe. "Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, when ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." And how was it with these disciples? A few hours after this, as the Saviour predicted, "they all forsook Him and fled." Lord, what is man? You see what a difference there is between this trusting in the Lord in truth, and our imagining that this is the case, or supposing that we do this. Therefore

"Beware of Peter's word,

Nor confidently say,

I never will deny Thee, Lord,
But grant I never may."

297

XX.

THE DUTY OF GLADNESS.

(Delivered on Thursday Evening, March 3rd, 1846.)

"Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."-ISAIAH XII. 6.

Two things are here observable. First, the person addressed, the "inhabitant of Zion." Zion was the name of a high mound situated upon a bed of rock enclosed within the walls of Jerusalem, and making the finest and strongest part thereof. There David's palace was; therefore it was frequently called the city of David." There was first the Tabernacle, then the Temple, "whither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord;" and concerning which God said, "This is My rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation; and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish."

If we look through the literal description to the spiritual glory discernible, we shall soon see that it was typical of a higher state, and a shadow of good things to come. I hardly need remind you that by a figure of speech Zion is used in the New Testament as significant of the Church of the living God. Witness only the language of the Apostle to the believing Hebrews: "Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through