save that of firmer adherence, and deeper gratitude; and, uninjured and un-confounded, the Building of GOD shall rise higher and higher, until it attain the perfection of holiness, and the perpetuity of Heaven. Happy the people who are in such a case; yea, "blessed are those people who have JEHOVAH for their GOD!"

66

66

66

Beloved brethren, is this your case? Would to GOD that the blessedness and security of the LORD'S believing people belonged to every one in this congregation! But may it not be feared, that He who trieth the heart, and knoweth the real character of every one here present, is now looking upon one and another, and saying, "His foundation is "in the dust; his hope is like the spider's web; his expectation shall fail, and perish for ever?”— And concerning whom does GoD pronounce such an awful decision? Without doubt, it may be said to the worldly-minded, the unhumbled, the prayerless, the self-righteous, and the disobedient, "THOU art the man." The person who trusts in uncertain riches, and sets up a golden idol in his heart; he who depends upon the pleasures and gratifications of this sinful world for happiness; he who is not bowed down in the contrite sense and feeling of his sins committed in thought, word, and deed, against GoD and man; he who has never truly and heartily cried for pardoning mercy, as a sinking mariner would for help, or a condemned malefactor would for life; he

K

who fancies himself good and righteous in the sight of God, because he is not so bad in the sight of man as others, and has not committed, in act, those sins, the seeds of which lie, undiscovered, deep in the corruption of his own heart; and he who lives in the daily and habitual practice of what God forbids, without feeling sorrow or penitence, or framing the desire of repentance;-every such unhappy person is, undoubtedly, far off from CHRIST, and without a solid foundation for eternity. Angels pity-ministers pity and pray for such persons. GOD looks upon you with long-suffering; and He commissions us to beseech you, in His stead, to flee this day for refuge, to the hope set before you in the Gospel. The sure, the tried, the precious Corner-stone of a sinner's hope, has been placed before you. In the righteous obedience and sin-atoning blood, and soul-saving grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, you have been exhorted to trust. Here is safety-here is peace—here is Heaven; but no where besides. Oh, be concerned at once, without a moment's delay, to have your feet placed upon the Rock of Ages; your naked souls covered with the garments of CHRIST's righteousness; your guilt washed away in His blood; and yourselves built up a holy temple," an habitation of GoD through the SPIRIT." Be persuaded to leave the quicksand, and to flee to the Sure Foundation; -for the rain will descend, and the winds of trouble and of death will blow; the raging tempest of Divine wrath

must beat; and then, every building of human merit, or earthly splendour, or carnal enjoyment, shall fall into the depth of everlasting destruction. How soon the hand of death may shake the earthly house of your tabernacle to the dust, oh, who can tell? Be wise, then, in time; and now, "while it is called today," hasten your escape to the Mountain of Calvary, to the Chief Corner-stone which endured the flood and tempest in all their fury, and in whose secure recesses you may behold, and remain under, that Cross, which, having borne the SON, assures us of a FATHER'S favour and a FATHER'S eternal home.

Finally, let the believer rejoice in his privileges, and remember his obligations. You, brethren, are safe in CHRIST. Many promises of Scripture concur with that in the text, to declare, "you shall never be confounded." Think, then, upon one word in the passage before us-precious. Let the Chief Cornerstone, in which Divine grace hath enabled you to trust, be more and more precious in your estimation. "Count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS" your LORD. Live," looking unto JESUS." Fix the eye of faith more intently upon His Divine Power, and Righteousness, and Faithfulness, and Love. Look off from self, from the world, from your crosses, and sorrows, and cares, and anxieties, and behold the Rock of your salvation, the Friend of your soul, the Strength of your life, the ever-present Shepherd of the sheep of His pasture.

Contemplate Him, in all the glory of His Deity; in all the sympathies of His humanity; in all the perfection of His earthly obedience; in all the completeness of His atoning sacrifice; in all the abundance of His treasured grace;—and rejoice in the persuasion, that this SAVIOUR is, and ever will be, your foundation of hope, your foundation of life, your all-sufficient GOD, and your everlasting glory.

And recollect your obligations. Privilege and purity are inseparable. Be strenuous, therefore, in your endeavours "to perfect holiness in the fear of the LORD." Let there be a conformity of the "Living stones," to the Chief Corner-stone, in thought, word, and work. Press forward in the way of obedience; and pray that the superstructure of holiness may be advanced daily by the sanctifying energy of His SPIRIT, until it shall be perfected in Heavenly glory. I conclude with the exhortation of St. Jude (20, 21.); -and may God give us all an heart-felt sense of its importance, and an experimental knowledge of its meaning! "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves "on your most holy faith, praying in the HOLY GHOST, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking "for the mercy of our LORD JESUS CHRIST unto "eternal life."

66

SERMON IX.

THE RICHES OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN.

1 COR. iii. 21-23.

Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

THE Bible is a book of mysteries, which reason in vain attempts to explain, but which faith receives in humble gratitude, so as to produce present peace and future happiness in the believer. The "great mystery of Godliness" is, the manifestation of GOD THE SON in human flesh. A mystery as real, though not as stupendous, is the spiritual life and privileges of the faithful in CHRIST JESUS. Speaking of the state and character of himself and other believers, St. John says, The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." "Our life," St. Paul says, "is hid with CHRIST in GOD." And as to the condition of the LORD's people in this world, who can read the Sacred Scriptures without perceiving such descriptions as produce wonder and require faith? What St. Paul

66

66