tation. As the philosopher said when he was shipwrecked, and the people were busily employed in removing their goods from the vessel, and one said to him, "What! do you carry nothing away? Do you leave your goods to destruction?" "No," said he : "I carry all my goods with me:" so, whenever the Christian is wrecked in death, he says, "I shall carry all my treasure with me: death cannot strip me of my treasure: for I have left my children, and houses, and lands in this life, that I may receive a hundred fold more in the world to come."

Are you called to walk in a dark path? Think of that bright morning, without a cloud, which is coming: Do you find changes within and changes without? Think of the everlasting covenant! Do you feel anxiety, confusion, and disappointment embittering your lot? Think of that covenant which is ordered in all things! Do you find you can place no dependance on friends and promises? Do your expectations fail? Think of the covenant which is sure! Can you keep no hold of any thing? God never intended you should he offers you his everlasting covenant! Of that lay hold! Let other things go. They are not your portion. God intended to loosen your hold, that you might say, "I will look to that which is all my salvation from sin and sorrow! I will look away from that which is precarious and uncertain, to that which is unchangeable. There is a branch that springs from Jesse: that shall be all my salvation and all my desire, when I can see nothing else grow."

Brethren! this is the true knowledge of the world, as well as the true knowledge of the Gospel. Here we see what we must live upon, and what we can die upon. Let us lay it down as a maxim, that a Christian, at the very worst, though a beggar in the condition of Lazarus at the gate, covered with sores-is far happier than the rich man, in his best estate.

2. Let us learn, from David's language, that THE

TROUBLES OF A CHRISTIAN'S HOUSE ARE PARTICULARLY DESIGNED ΤΟ LEAD HIM OUT FROM THE WORLD, AND UPWARD TOWARD HIS HOME.

He is under special teaching. Another man is satisfied, and looks no further. There cannot be sorer judgment: Ephraim has joined himself to idols: let him alone. Let him not find out the fraud.

a

Sometimes, indeed, the servant of God is gently drawn:-Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear: forget also thine own people, and thy father's house. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord God, and worship thou him. But, if he is not disposed to leave his state and condition, if his heart still wishes to rest a little longer and a little longer, God knows how to drive as well as to draw. A thorn is put into his rest. Then he learns to say, "Nothing grows here: this is no longer my garden; here are no peaceful walks, no refreshing shades, no cheering fruits: I must go away: I must look higher."

Was not this the case with Adam?-with Noah? -with Abraham ?—with Isaac?-with Jacob?peculiarly so with Job?-most eminently so with Aaron?-most deplorably so with Eli?-and now, says David, "It is my case: I see what God is doing in my house, to make me look further; and I do look further and I look to nothing short of the everlasting covenant."

Brethren! if things grew to our minds, we should have no heart to leave them! Trials are the voice which says, "Leave these things! Begone? get away!" They speak to us: but 'till we are brought to say, "Though the fig-tree doth not blossom, though there is no comfort in the creature, yet will I joy in the Lord," we hear in vain.

3. I shall make a third remark: and that is, that we should hence learn, NOT ONLY TO LIVE WIT

NESSES FOR GOD, BUT TO DIE BEARING OUR TESTIMONY TO THE REPORT OF THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST, AND THE BENEFIT AND BLESSING OF HIS EVERLASTING COVENANT.

If fools will come and ask us what there is in the spirit of religion, we should endeavour to show, that, if it can do nothing else, it can bear up a dying sinner; that he has got hold of something substantial and abiding, when every thing flies from them.

The language of the heart carries its own evidence. Even disappointed worldly men. leave a strong testimony. I know not that any thing ever more forcibly struck me on this subject, than the dying declaration of that haughty man, Cardinal Wolsey: "If I had served my God with half the zeal with which I have served my king, he would not have forsaken me in my old age. 99

If then we have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and the comforts of the everlasting covenant, let us say with the poet,

"Let me thy power and truth proclaim

To the surviving age;

And leave a savour of thy name,

When I shall quit the stage."

To every parent I would say, you had better leave such a testimony as this, addressed to the hearts of your families on a dying bed, than leave them thousands of gold and silver. Gold and silver may prove but a millstone about their necks, to sink them into a bottomless pit: this shows them that a Christian has something to die with; that he has chosen a better part. It shows them, that, while he lives, he has something in his heart which is all his salvation; and that, if they will perish in spite of all his remonstrances, yet he has a hope full of immortality. though David had said, "Come, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul. I

As

have passed through fire and water. He hath covered my head in the day of battle, and put a new song in my mouth; and though I grieve because I have an ungodly house and family around me, yet I will leave my testimony that I die not without consolation. I have something that is all my desire. And though I see nothing grow below, I see a garden growing above, to which I am going; ever flourishing, green, and fair; where stands the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations." God grant that you and I may leave such a testimony behind us!

SERMON III.

THE CHILD OF PROVIDENCE.

1 KINGS, XVII, 15, 16.

And she went, and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.

An attempt to be independent of God is one of the greatest errors to which man has ever been exposed. It was the first temptation addressed to him:-Ye shall be as Gods: and therefore he ventured to break the command of God, and attempted to be independent of him. This is the essence of sin-of our fall from God.

This, however, was not the temper of Elijah. Though he seems to have been a man of sanguine constitution, yet you find, from the account given of him, in this chapter, which begins his history, that, when he had, according to the word of the Lord, declared, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word, he went, according to the command, and hid himself by the brook Cherith, and was fed by ravens morning and evening, and drank of the brook; and, without any sort of complaint that he should be fed in this manner, he seems quite contented with his accomodations. And, when the brook dried up, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. And he arose, and went to Zarephath, in great simplicity: as if he had