they hear his voice, than they were completely overcome by the irresistible power of truth. The builders of Babel in defiance of the living God, undertook to erect a tower whose summit should reach heaven. In this enterprize they made no inconsiderable progress. They were ardent in the pursuit of their object, and no question, entertained high expectations of success. But when God came down, they were in a moment confounded by the irresistible force of truth, and abandoned their enterprize forever.

During the negociation of Moses, at the court of Pharaoh, there was the greatest effort made by the proud monarch and his magicians to confound right and wrong, and thereby to justify themselves in tramp, ling on the rights of God and men. God took methods to instruct Pharaoh and his people by the irresistible force of truth, and the result was, they brought in verdict against themselves, and for God, that he was good and that they themselves were wicked. Had not truth been irresistible, they never would have signed this mortifying confession. Belshazzar was a monarch of the greatest empire then existing. He made a great feast to a thousand of his Lords and drank wine before the thousand. And he praised the Gods of gold and of silver, of brass and of iron, of wood and of stone. God took occasion to let him see the truth in a most impressive manner. For in the same hour came forth a man's hand, and wrote over aginst the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw part of the hand that wrote. And the kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against the other.' And what was the cause of this anguish of soul, which shook every particle of his body? Why God shewed him the truth, and he found it to be irresistible. He could not stand under its weight.

Saul of Tarsus, verily thought through the blindness of his heart, he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And for this

cause he received letters from Authority and went on his way towards Damascus. On this journey Jesus met him yes he met him clad in the armour of truth, having on his vesture, written King of Kings and Lord of Lords! And how was Saul affected at the sight? Why, he instantly fell prostrate on the earth, and as he tells king Agrippa, he could not resist it. 'What was I that I should resist God?'

The thief on the cross came to the place of execution, an abettor of Christ's murderers, and filled with odium against Jesus. He was at first determined to maintain his opposition to the last extremity. But this was the time and place, eternally in Christ's mind, to make a display of his irresistible grace. Truth flashed into his soul like the forked lightening. He was overcome by the irresistible power of God, and offers this prayer in attestation of its reality. Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.' In the day of God's power, in all cases, periods and parts of the world, the truth will prove itself to be irresistible. In this period, in this wicked generation, there are thousands of witnesses rising up for God and against themselves, that truth is irresistible. This will eternally be the case with the damned as well as the saved. They will yield to the irresistible force of truth. In the moral universe there will eternally be a concordance in this matter. The mouths of the wicked will be stopped, because of the irresistible operation of the truth upon their consciences. This brings me to a,

5th Observation, that truth is perfectly and eternally independent. It is impossible that it should be destroyed or weakened. As truth exists in the nature of things, it cannot be destroyed without des. troying the nature of things. And this is beyond the

reach of all beings in the universe. It is no more possible for God to destroy the difference between right and wrong, which is the ground of truth itself, than it is, that he should annihilate his own existence. It is the glory of God that he cannot lie, and it is his glory that he cannot destroy the nature of things, and hence truth is eternally and unalterably independent. I add,

6thly. That truth is searching and penetrating. It is like the refiner's fire, it will take out every particle of alloy from the pure metal. It is like the fulIer's soap, it will wipe off and expunge every minutia of filth and uncleanness. The nature of the truth, as we have it from the Lord God, is to hew away all the trash that comes in its way. It will go down into the hiding place of the forger of lies, and bring him out and lead him bound hand and foot to a tribunal, from which there is no escape. The co-worker with Satan, who denies that there is danger in sinning, is to be pierced right through, with the truth. Error is vulnerable in every part, and truth will follow it. It will seek it out, from all the mazes and labyrinths of hellish secrecy. It will so cut away root and branch as to leave the enemy of truth nothing on which to rest. It will leave him hopeless and defenceless, goaded by the stings of conscience and sunk under a sense of his own guilt. God's sovereignty, his absolute decrees, the final ruin of the impenetent, the permanency of Jesus' throne will cut up modern error, and make its avowers revolt with horror even at existence, and wish that they had never been born. Truth will have its way; Jesus will ride by its side conquering and to conquer. It will do all its work: it will palsy every tongue, that moves to its prejudice, and kindle a fire upon hellish festivity, that shall never be quenched. Truth is not confined by limits; it runs up to the Judgment seat.-It is Jesus' Throne---it is eternal and unalterable, and the

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same in all worlds, and forever and ever. O blessed redeemer, wilt thou enrich us with the knowledge of thy truth.

7thly. Truth is humiliating.

Whenever truth is made efficacious to the heart, it empties the creature of self exaltation and glorying and postrates him in the dust. Truth always gives God the throne and the creature the footstool. Nothing stirs up the enmity of the carnal mind like truth seen in its connexion; and nothing makes the creature humble like truth made efficacious by the sovereign act of God. While through a deluded heart, proud man would fain conceive God to be such another as himself; yet when brought cordially to receive the truth, it is his chief joy that the Lord reigns.Having by sovereign grace become willing that God should be God, the creature wants no other heaven than to be in his hand and to see him act. As the renewed man progresses in the knowledge of the truth, he loses in self-esteem and increases in humility. As God magnifies more and more in the eye of the believer, so he will find himself disposed to take a lower seat, and will fell himself lost in Jehovah's glory. Humility increases in proportion as truth is seen and relished. Truth will never have completed all its humiliating work. In the triumphant state, when truth shall shine in unsullied radiance, the glorified will veil their faces. One truth upon the back of another will rise in quick and eternal succession, and the mysteries of the Redeemer's character and work will so eclipse all finite excellence, as to produce the very perfection of humility in the myriads of God's elect in the world of eternal glory. Would any ask respecting the ground of increasing humility in the blessed; l'answer, the ground is truth seen and loved, and showing a contrast between the creature and the creator. The more perfectly this contrast is made visible between the redeemer and the redeemed, the

lower will the creature choose to lie, and the more will he exalt God. It is the tendency of truth received, and admired to humble the creature more and more, and this will be its increasing effect, in heaven, to all eternity.

Sthly. Truth is harmonious.

In some minerals there are substances of divers natures and qualities. From the same strata the chymist will extract a variety of substances, each of which has a nature peculiar to itself. When he has done this, he will reduce them back to their original composition. With truth it is different. It has only one simple nature. It is conformable to a rule which is eternal. It is, therefore, harmonious in its parts, and indivisible. In the whole disclosure of truth made by Jesus, there is not a symptom of discordance. The bible is a perfect whole consisting of parts, each. bearing the signature of the one infinite God who cannot err. Truth is linked together in its nature, is so perfectly consistent with itself, that it is as easy to destroy its existence as its harmony. This golden chain unites in one common bond a kingdom of ten thousand time ten thousand, including not a dissenter from truth, not a discord in praise, who unceasingly. exclaim before the redeemer's throne, Saying, great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.' A few inferences will conclude. And

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1. We may infer, that all moral beings, in the universe will finally agree in religious sentiments. The diversity of opinion on religious subjects, so prevalent in the world, is not owing to any defect in the understandings of men. Let a thousand men have an equal degree of conviction of any truth, and they will perfectly concur in opinion respecting that truth. Five hundred may be delighted, and the other five hundred totally displeased, with the object, but with an equal degree of conviction; opposition of moral feeling will never produce opposition of senti