If any are otherwise, it is because they have not come to the light. We have been exalted like Capernaum.

We are here taught that the same means must be employed for the conversion of others. You say, "May not the heathen be saved without the Gospel?" Admit it; but infer we then that we need send no Gospel to them? Remember the talents.-It was he who had the one talent that misused it. The greater the privileges, then, the greater the possibility of the heathen's salvation.-Again, remember the Saviour's warning to Chorazin. *** What a heart is that which sees no need of sending the heathen light because there may be a bare possibility of salvation. The lost traveller in the desert may possibly avoid the beasts around, and extricate himself, even if no guide offer. * * * But there are two questions of greater importance than these: 1. Are they actually saved? They have a light within, but they regard it not. The fact is against them, whatever

the theory be.

2. Can we be saved if we send them not the Gospel? We are the trustees of the Gospel. (Johnson's opinion of the man who puts out the light in a lighthouse-same with him who refuses to light it up.) We could light up this beacon -if not, and souls are shipwrecked, "We are verily guilty concerning our brethren."

*** If, then, God pardon us the past, let us resolve henceforth to wash our hands in innocency.

God is pouring out a spirit of pity on the world towards the heathen. Could I strike flat the rotundity of the globe, and show you in prospective what is doing, you would exclaim, "We have seen strange things to-day!"-Little groups of missionaries-the banner of the cross waving-one shouting to another-the dying missionary-your own country sending another to catch the standard-the valleys and the rocks shouting to each other, and one universal hallelujah!

This holy war, like all wars, is expensive-special reasons for a large collection. * * * I have come from afarIf we invite a beggar, we are bound to give.—If you think the committee did right in inviting me, give; if wrong, revenge it not on the cause!

If you gave more to Clarke, then your motive was not love. An incident occurs to me. "Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into it; and many that were rich cast in much." Had Had you been going to the box, what would have been your feelings!-substance-and much.-There was one poor widow who gave all she could-all her living.—The Master is here—if much be given, and much remain behind—he sees you as giving little, &c. Jesus accounts the amount given by the amount of what is left in the purse!!

SERMON LX.

THE BELIEVER IN DARKNESS.

Isaiah, 1., 10.—Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God

EXPERIENCE demonstrates the truth of all our preaching, that he who leans on earth leans on his ruin.-Happy if good men were conscious of this: and they are so in the same degree as they place their trust in God. *** "Poverty cannot rob me; sickness deprive me of strength; darkness deprive me of light."-Some such meaning here. "If you have no light, trust in the Lord!" Here is a certain issue: confide in him—he is yours; however the mind is implicated, he will bring you through; see how he brought Christ to glory!

I. The character mentioned.

II. The circumstances here stated.

III. The directions given.

I. The character mentioned.

First, one who fears the Lord, and obeys the voice of his

servant.

Secondly, he walks in darkness, and has no light!

1. No spiritual light? No; he who has Jesus Christ in his heart cannot be ignorant; he is washed in blood! Hu

man learning is but a shade from ignorance, but they are truly wise who know Jesus Christ. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."-Know him? And where are your sins? Hid.-Where your hopes? Beyond sight. -The darkness in the text, then, is not ignorance in the scriptural sense.

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2. Nor is he miserable. The good man cannot be so. He may have sleepless nights, &c., but not wretched!There is something in piety that mingles the cup: makes him "Sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; though poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things." No one knows this in theory-experience.—Feeling trial, and yet enjoying the rest of tranquillity!-the happiness of God which passeth understanding; keeping the mind, &c.—no other end of preaching-sacraments, &c., but to bring them to feel the happiness of Jesus Christ, in the belief of the cross!

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3. Nor does he walk in the darkness of sin-that cord is in the fire of God's will. He fights against it—no falsehood, deceit, strife, vanity-all the hell of fallen nature.If you be Christians, sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? You are under Calvary-under grace. You are at least saved from practical disobedience, and you are seeking to be fully saved.-I read, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." No argument of man can destroy this.

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We do not, then, walk in the darkness of sin.

The text refers to Providential darkness. Heaven leads through mazes. (1.) God often thwarts a good man in his endeavours to get comfortably through the world. He is industrious and active, and yet the torrent goes against him. He compares himself with his more fortunate neighbours. "No better than I am." "Yet where are my children? Gone! my partner accusing me! my friends say I am a hypocrite! My throne-it is a dunghill!" This is fact, not fancy. He walks in darkness indeed!-How often God resumes what he gave!

(2.) How often are the children of good men thorns in their

sides? Like Eli, they taught them well, but when they looked for piety and affection, they found impiety and disobedience! They reproved in affection, hoping to conquer by love.-Age ought to command respect-yet their eyes wax dim and their gray hairs are brought down with sorrow to the grave in one day all perish together! Did ever lovely blossoms end in such a blight!-brought up for the church! See David! the idol of his soul murders his brother-aims at his father's crown, his father's life! The parent flees, hunted by his child!-See the saint of half a century pass Kedron, ascending Mount Olivet. Twelve thousand pursue him, and the king only is to be smitten. Absalom commands.-Hear the father: "Repel the foe, but deal gently, for my sake, with the young man, even with Absalom-he is my son."-The messenger flies to inform David of the defeat.-Deaf to all this" Is the young man Absalom safe?" if he is preserved, it is better than victory! But no!" O Absalom! my son! my son!" * Gibbon says a man can only live to posterity in three ways: in his children, in his works, or in the enthusiasm of Christianity. When a man loses the first, O how much comfort is gone! "If I be bereaved of my children I am bereaved.”

(3.) The darkness may be great and oppressive-weakness of body. *** But whether God takes what he gave you, &c., whatever darkness, here is the cure! ***(The FATHER purges-yet you cannot take the knife to Isaac.)

III. The directions given.

Trust in the name of the Lord—his power, benevolence, fidelity.-Witness the record-look at the past, and see how he led thee. Stay upon thy God! Fine figure! -practical religion. Stay is a prop to a weaker vessel to support a stronger. Lean on God! rest on the mighty! The man of faith holds him in the promise: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."-Faith is what he stands on; it is the substance, the basis, from which he plays all his engine. (Habakkuk.)

See the fact-Joseph! When his father hungered, he heard the rumbling of Joseph's wagons. Jacob stayed on God.

But the reason of the thing requires it.-The veracity of God!-a delight in the confidence of God which none can rob us of.

When the heart fights within-enemies many-table spare -live to God, and nothing can harm you. "I am in his hand," said Wesley-" in the hollow of it!" or, as Taylor said, "In the enclosure and encirclings of the Lord"—" He will never leave you." But if not in his hands, you cannot confide in him.-Make this point sure.

SERMON LXI.

APOSTOLIC PREACHING.

Colossians, i., 29.-Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

EVERY man should have some determinate end of action, and true wisdom consists in adapting the best means to the best end. Now the Apostle Paul shows us here the end of all his works.-The man who has no fixed, unalterable principle, uses not his reason; he has not attained to the dignity of human nature.-Some have this end in view, and others that, but the noblest end of our being is that at which the apostle aimed.

I. The end which the apostle proposed to himself.
II. His work as connected with that end.

III. The principle, the only true one, by which he sought to accomplish his object.

I. His end was the salvation of immortal souls! an end worthy of Saul of Tarsus-worthy of the Great Apostle of the Gentiles! His mighty mind could grasp no less an object. It is the end which God proposes to himself; the end he had in view in the gift of his only Son! the end of all his dispensations to the sons of men. This alone is an object worthy of a creature who was made for God! it is the true dignity of human nature!