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a perverseness, a waywardness, concerning truth, concerning revelation, which leads many persons very far astray from the way of holiness and from the way of peace? You know that it is thus; you know that the work of the third enemy is ever going on, not only in lands still lying in darkness, not only amongst those who have openly denied and forsaken their Saviour, but even amongst men who still call Him Lord, and still attend upon the ordinances of His worship. Let us say it plainly, the enemy is more or less in all of us. He is one of the many accomplices of the devil in these hearts of ours. Let us

not blind our eyes to his presence or to his power. Lu. 21. 36. Let us watch and pray always, as against the temp

tation of the flesh, as against the crafts of the devil, as against the solicitations of pleasure, the illusions of fashion, or the intimidation of the world; so also against the false glare of an enlightenment professing 1 Cor. 4.6. to be wise above what is written, against the sophistries, the insolences, and the ignorances, of a philosophy which knows not and seeks not God!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is our true light, our certain guide. With it in our hearts, we need not fear. While we read the Gospel, while we trust in Christ, while we worship God, while we cherish the Spirit, we may ask what we will, we may investigate what we will, we may enquire and we may examine, we may ransack the treasures of human knowledge

and sound the depths of human wisdom, and we shall never make shipwreck of the faith.

The faith is

founded upon a rock, a rock that is higher than man: Mat. 7.25.

let him plant his foot there, and he is safe for time, and safe for eternity.

This is the faith which you are asked to propagate. This is that possession with respect to which

Ps. 61. 2.

it is said to you this night, Freely ye have received: Mat. 10.8. freely give. In the midst of your street stands the tree Rev. 22. 2. of life; you may eat of it and live for ever: but Gen. 3. 22. remember and forget not that its use must not be selfish; if it is yours, it is not yours only; the leaves Rev. 22. 2. of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Greatly, sadly, fearfully, do the nations of the earth need that healing be it yours to stretch forth the hand which is to offer and to apply it.

And this I say, brethren, the time is short. What shall warrant to us the continuance of life itself, with all its manifold openings for amendment and for usefulness? What shall guarantee any man for one day against the stroke of death? Shall strength or health, shall the very prime of manhood, shall high birth, shall illustrious station, shall the happiness of a Royal home1, shall the interests (as man judges) of the very first of nations? Let it not have been

1 This Lecture was delivered on the evening of the day on which tidings were received of the death of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.

for nothing that this call reaches you on a day so

dark and cloudy, so mournful in its tidings, so anxious in its prognostications! Let it say to you,

Ecc. 9. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might! Let your offerings to-night testify your sense

of God's greatness, of Christ's sovereignty, and your I Cor. 3. 9. desire to be fellow-workers with God in behalf of Christ, while yet there is time! And let your

prayers ascend day and night from this time forward with double earnestness for your Queen and for her Royal house, that, if the happiness of her earthly day be henceforth darkened, a light not of earth may arise upon her with a twofold brightness; that she may alway incline to God's will even when it is grievous, and walk in God's way even when it is rough, may be endued plenteously with heavenly gifts, and finally, after this life, may attain everlasting joy and felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT,

Dec. 15, 1861.

LECTURE XXV.

REVELATION XIV. I-5.

AND I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount I Sion, and with Him a hundred [and] forty-four thousands having His name and the name of His Father written upon their foreheads. And I heard a sound out of the heaven, as 2 a sound of many waters, and as a sound of a great thunder; and the sound which I heard [was] as of harpers harping on their harps. And they sing a new song before (in pre- 3 sence of the throne and before (in presence of the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to learn the song, except the hundred [and] forty-four thousands, [they] who have been purchased from the earth. These are 4 they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These [are] they who follow the Lamb wheresoever He goeth. These were purchased from mankind [as] firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was not found false- 5 hood; for they are blameless.

LECTURE XXV.

REVELATION XIV. I.

And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads.

WE are in the midst of a section of this Book descriptive of the enemies of Christ and His Church. So formidable has been the account of the malignity, subtlety, and power of those enemies, that we can well imagine something of despair creeping over the Mat. 24.24. minds of its readers. There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and

wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall Lu. 18. 26. deceive the very elect. They that heard it said, Who then can be saved? At this point therefore a bright 1 Pet. 5. 1. vision of the glory that shall be revealed is interposed amidst the gloomy disclosures of danger and warfare. The general character of the brief passage

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