Gospel becomes the savour of death unto death, who can inculpate or accuse the Judge, when he has despised and rejected the deliverance? Who can arraign the justice of the sentence of eternal death, when he has wilfully and deliberately, with a contemptuous negligence, not less criminal than presumptuous, and with open defiance, put away the offer of eternal life?

Remember, therefore, beloved brethren, that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance, and that only those have a right knowledge of the goodness of God whom it has led to this, and that by all such the right knowledge is possessed. So that when I reverse the contemplation of the subject, and turn to the better and brighter side of it, for your comfort, and edification, and establishment in the truth, which I now gladly do, I am not to ask whether you have measured the mercy which reacheth to the heavens, or the faithfulness which stretcheth to the clouds; whether you have formed such an estimate of the divine goodness as is intrinsically worthy of the overwhelming subject; but has your conception of it been, at least, sufficiently elevated, and has your impression been sufficiently deep and genuine, to operate continually and constantly in your conduct? Have your combined and habitual principles of action been, "Ye that fear the Lord hate evil; ye that love God follow after righteousness; ye that praise the gift serve the Giver; ye that hear the Giver accept the gift? The first and the most obvious demonstration of knowing God, is to take him at his word, and to act firmly and decidedly on his promises. If we can but do this, though still unworthy, our unworthiness is nothing to the purpose; though still weak, our weakness is nothing to the purpose; though we are sorely beset and ready to halt in our path by the power of enemies without and within-adversaries, not of flesh and blood, who can only be combated with weapons not carnal-all these are nothing to the purpose. The single question of real importance to the believer is this: Has God promised eternal life? Then let who will withstand, he will give it. Has God given eternal life? Then, let who may accept, he will ensure it. And if this is the promise that he hath promised us, and this the gift that he hath given us-even eternal life, and that this life is in his Son; it then follows, as of necessity-and those whose experience responds to the testimony, will thus know that they are right-it follows that the man who clearly understands, most warmly acknowledges, most sensibly feels, most abundantly receives and realizes the goodness of God, is he who closes at once with the frank, and gracious, and godlike offer of an unlimited and unconditional love, on the simple ground"God hath said it, God will do it: God will give eternal life; and it is enough for me, sinner though I am, that that life is in his Son.”

Yes, brethren, to all who are taught of God, the consummate fitness, the exquisite adaptation, the entire sufficiency, the unalloyed perfection of the instru ment by which such a Giver conveys such a gift, comes home to the heart with a demonstration of irresistible power; it becomes the witness in himself by which the believer is at once identified. We then believe, when we feel that such a The salvation was made for us, and that we were made for such a salvation. soul, conscious from the first of its own deficiency and degradation, needs a sure foundation on which it can construct an edifice which shall endure throughout eternity but believing, it finds all that it needs in the one glorious conclusion, the one invaluable assurance, "Christ Jesus, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." The perfection of the sacrifice grapples, in the mental struggle, with the immensity of the sin: the costliness of the ransom is opposed to the accumulation of the debt. We knew that "sin abounded," and we felt that

death would abound by reason of sin: but how can the understanding be so darkened, even by its own ignorance, or the heart be so deadened, even by its own depravity, as not to admit the inevitable conclusion, that ". 'grace doth much more abound?" If it were by a finite sacrifice, or without any sacrifice at all, that God hath given to us eternal life; if angel or archangel had been the atonement, or if atonement there had been none; the cloudy vision of the conscious heart might still have been bewildered and perplexed, in discovering adequate hope of pardon. Had the divine displeasure against sin been expressed with equal energy as his willingness to pardon now is, the words of mercy and of wrath might have held each other in equipoise; and we might, nay, we must, have passed through life in a solicitude the most fearful, and from it in a suspense the most appalling. But now "the life is in his Son;" now there is the endurance of God incarnate to compensate divine wrath; there is the obedience of a pure and sinless man to vindicate God's holiness; there is the perfected sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the God-man, to afford the strongest consolation; so strong that death cannot prevail against it, to those who flee for refuge to the hope set before them in the Gospel.

Now, as God has arranged the scheme of our redemption, now the ransom overpays the debt, the obedience outweighs the sin, the one offering perfects for ever them that are sanctified; now death is not only overcome, but even "swallowed up in victory:" and he who was dead in trespasses and sins, now made alive unto God through Christ, is nothing daunted in approaching God by the retrospect of former days, when the motions of sin in his members did work in his members to bring forth sin unto death. Yet he will say, and I have heard it in substance said again and again "Death comes to me as my born inheritance, by reason of Adam's sin, and it works in me by the agency of my own indwelling corruption; and were I to be judged by my own consciousness of demerit, or to toil and travail for eternal life by my own merits, I should be consigned to despair: but now I have a good hope through grace, for God has given me eternal life (it is not the wages of my service; it is the gift of God), and this life is in his Son."

Let not, then, this subject leave you, beloved brethren, without a standard by which to determine your own spiritual state: for the Apostle has told you in the preceding verse, that "he that believeth hath the witness in himself;" and, therefore, we may warrantably apply the reverse of the proposition: "He that hath not the witness in himself cannot be safely considered as a believer."

Now, the witness within is none other than the record which God hath given us of his Son; and if, for your practical application, I am to throw this into a tangible form, I would shape the inquiry thus: Believing what God hath promised; accepting what God hath offered, even eternal life; acting daily, though imperfectly, on the conviction that the promise is true, and the persuasion that the gift is sure-do you dwell with the greater satisfaction on the promise of God; and do you accept with the greater confidence the offer of God, because both are in his Son? Are you accustomed to calm your apprehensions, to silence your misgivings, to comfort your hearts, and to stay yourselves on the consideration, that Jesus is a Saviour, at once all-sufficient, and alone sufficient? Have you in consequence committed to him, with entire and ample confidence, the accomplishment of the indispensable work? Or, if you have not as yet given him your confidence, are you at least aware that he demands confidence, and that he deserves it, determined never to rest satisfied till you have rendered, in spirit and truth, what he both deserves and demands?

Yes, we would press this point, for we must assume this as the very lowest point of practical Christianity. This must be the experience of all those who have so much as a foot upon the threshold, or a hand upon the door; who are scarcely within, yet just within, the safe enclosure, where the fire of divine indignation against sin might singe the garment, but it would not scorch the flesh. This, I say, is the very lowest point to which every one who is indeed a Christian must come up; he must experience a positive satisfaction. To many, indeed, it is a lively, a joyful, a transporting, a triumphant satisfaction; but every one, I repeat it, who is on the lowest form of Christian instruction, must realize a positive satisfaction in the thought, that what God has given, he has given in his Son; that thus the sacrifice is perfected; that thus the covenant is made sure; that one is alike enthroned as sovereign, and accepted as intercessor, who is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God through him. And thus we who feel that we need the uttermost, inasmuch as we are the chief of sinners, how can we but confide in it when it is salvation through the Son of God?

We have only time, in conclusion, to identify three classes of our hearers; and, do you, brethren, determine your own place.

There are first, and I would you were not almost but altogether such, there are those who believe, obey, confide; and whose experience may thus briefly be summed up that they work trusting, and they trust working. These are the children of God, these are the members of Christ, these are the planting of the Spirit. Already more beloved than angels, they shall hereafter and for ever be more glorious.}

Next, there are those who believe without acting, who acknowledge the gift, but who do not accept it by every public confession of God's goodness, and seal and rivet the justice of their own condemnation, by every acknowledgment of their own sins. By these the unspeakable gift of God is postponed; the offer, the unmerited, inestimable offer of God is adjourned. Life, eternal life, life in the Son of God awaits (could you believe it, if it were not verified by facts?) awaits the accumulation of a little more wealth, the acquirement of a higher reputation, the swelling of some bubble of ambition, or the grasping of some phantom of pleasure. In the mean time, the sun disappears, and the sky darkens, and the night lowers, and the tempest howls, and they who would not work while it was day, are come to the hour that they cannot work in; and they call on us to pray for them in their agony, and we cannot even pray for them, "Father, forgive them, for they knew not what they did."

And, lastly, there are those-but no, we will hope that there are not those here, who neither believe nor know; who come here for no better purpose than to deceive men, or to outrage God; nay, we will even hope with those who belong to the former class, that these may be prevailed upon by the simple word of God, when our pleadings and threatenings are alike in vain. Hearken, then, ye congregation of immortals, you who cannot but in part, and that the lesser and the viler part, return to your native dust: hearken-God hath given to you eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Oh, then, take what God has given, and accept what God has proffered. Receive the Saviour into your hearts ere he be angry, and so you perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Rather may you inherit the blessings of all those that put their trust in him.

392

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE OF A TIME OF REFRESHING.

REV. D. WILSON, A. M.

ST. MARY, ISLINGTON, APRIL 6, 1834.

*Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the time of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."-ACTS, iii. 19-21.

ALL the great doctrines of Christianity are of a deeply practical nature; if they do not reach the heart, they fail in their object. They are not matters for speculation, or hearing only; they are subjects for individual and personal application. The important truths which we have recently considered, embracing the sufferings, and the death, and the resurrection of the Son of God, if they lead not to repentance, to conversion, to the forsaking of sin, and the seeking after holiness, they entirely fail of their object: there has been either a want of plainness and distinctness in the manner in which they have been stated, or there is a deficiency in the application of them to our own hearts and consciences. The Apostles invariably brought their expositions of truth to a practical close; they never set forth the wondrous events connected with the crucifixion and resurrection of their Lord and Master, as subjects for curious inquiry and vain disputation; they made them, indeed, the basis of all their discourses, both to Jew and Gentile; but they never failed to employ them as motives to repentance, and stimulants to embracing the Gospel. So in the passage connected with our text, a most favourable opportunity had been presented to them for setting forth the efficacy of faith in their crucified Lord, from the miraculous cure of the lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple, they instantly seized the opportunity, not for display and vain glory, but for awakening the wondering populace to a sense of their guiltiness in killing the Prince of Life, and solemnly calling them to repentance and life.

The promise which St. Paul here held out, as a motive to their immediate return, is one of deep interest to the Church of Christ in every age. Permit me, then, from the words before you, to invite your attention, first, to the promise of our text; and secondly, to the practical exhortation founded upon it. And may that blessed Spirit who can alone apply it to the conscience and convince of sin, be pleased to bless what may now be spoken.

I propose to call your attention, first, to THE PROMISE CONTAINED IN OUR TEXT.

This refers to a period of peace, and holiness, and righteousness, which shall be hereafter revealed in the world. In its more confined and limited sense, indeed, it imports that peace and joy that shall flow into the soul of every true

convert. It forms the fulfilment of the Saviour's promise to all who come to him: "I will give you rest." It comprises the accomplishment of Isaiah's lofty prophecy, where he describes the future Saviour as coming "to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes; the oil of joy for mourning; the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true source of refreshment, and peace, and joy. "This," says the prophet, "is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; this is the refreshing." This is the source and spring of hope, under circumstances of disappointment and sorrow, when the truth of Christ is admitted by faith into the breast, and the influence of divine grace begins to operate; when the promises of mercy are fulfilled, and the love of Christ shed abroad; when a sense of refreshing from the presence of the Lord is vouchsafed; when the moral disorder is destroyed, and every faculty, and every power, of body and mind, is restored to its proper use, and original purpose; when all this begins to take place, and the man is made a new creature in Christ Jesus.

But I am aware this is but a very partial and very imperfect application of the promise before me. It evidently looks forward to some future scene of peace and joy, of holiness and of righteousness, which shall prevail more generally throughout the earth, when Messiah's reign shall be more fully established, and the influence of true piety shall be more generally spread. What the exact import of these terms mean, I pretend not to explain: "the day shall declare;" the times and seasons the Father hath put in his own power. We may, nevertheless, be able to gather some general ideas respecting the nature of the promise before us, which may be sufficient to stimulate and encourage the humble and inquiring mind, and which may form a powerful motive on which to ground our subsequent appeal.

The promise before us, then, embraces, in the first place, the assurance, that some future period of more general repose and peace shall be granted to the Church; "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." The expression conveys the idea of relief, repose, consolation, and rest, as following after a previous period of affliction, trouble, and distress. The Church of Christ is at present in a militant state; a struggle between light and darkness is going forward. The age in which we live is also remarkably distinguished for this conflict. Light and truth are spread abroad; the Gospel is proclaimed far and wide; evangelical religion is no longer a party name, distinguishing a sect which is every where spoken against, but embraces, more especially in this favoured land, a very large body of the professing Church. On the other hand, the enemy of souls is actively at work; he is sowing tares among the wheat; infidelity, scepticism, and false doctrine, are widely propagated. We seem to be on the eve of some great result, momentous to the Church of God. The promise, then, before us seems to imply, that a period shall arrive when this conflict and agitation shall cease; when refreshing dews and heavenly grace shall descend; when Christ, by his Gospel and his Spirit, shall come as the rain upon the new-mown grass, and as the showers that water the earth; when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established upon the top of the mountains, and be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it; when a breathing time of repose and rest, as it were, shall be granted to the people of God; when peace shall flow as a river, and righteousness as the waves of the sea. The next point connected with the promise before us, is, the return of the