of men said, "Iexceedingly fear and quake." But we also know, that, we are come to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, to receive promises of a kingdom which cannot be moved, not in order that we may repose in the indolence of security and self-satisfaction, but that we may have grace (it is for this end His grace is given to us) to "serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire." The longer we have served God, the more shall we fear, lest, after all, we depart from Him. The more of His love and His forbearance we have experienced, the more shall we tremble, lest all this should, in the end, prove unavailing, through our own negligence and imprudence; lest the accumulation of His mercies should but increase our guilt and our remorse.

What Church is more praised by St. Paul than the Philippian? And yet you hear the exhortation he gives these confirmed Christians not to pass the remnant of their days in the retrospection of their virtues, but to labour as if nothing had yet

1 Heb. xii. 18-29. Compare 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

been effected, with such fear and trembling, as becomes those, who recollect that they are co-operating with the Almighty, that infinite holiness has condescended to make His temple in their hearts, and that His presence, His inspiration, and His assistance create so many obligations and responsibilities, which finite gratitude can never discharge.

And then consider the

before us by the Apostle.

examples set

Where shall we find such a man as St. Paul; such love to God, such tenderness to man? And yet this is the man who says, "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away 2.

1 Phil. iii. 13, 14.

21 Cor. ix. 26, 27.

This indeed is to be in earnest. This indeed is the seriousness of one who really believes in the freedom of God's mercy, in the merits of Christ's death, and in the efficacy of divine grace.

But what shall we say of him whom Paul followed? Who was pure and spotless as the innocent and holy Jesus? Yet, what saith the Scripture? "In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared: though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered1."

Was ever mystery like this, that the eternal Son of God should experience the weakness and infirmity of his creatures, and work out his own salvation and ours with fear and trembling? Yes, my brethren, I see a greater, a more incomprehensible mystery before me this day. I see those for whom Christ died, and who profess to be his disciples, and yet pass their lives with as

1 Heb. v. 7, 8.

little seriousness as if no such person had ever existed. Wretched creatures that we are, standing on the brink of everlasting destruction, can we witness the agonies and tears, the piercing cries and trembling apprehensions of our Redeemer and our God, and live as if it were impossible to lose our souls! Merciful God, awaken us from the madness of self-deception. In infinite pity and compassion, awake, arouse, alarm our infatuated folly, and give us grace from this moment to act as if we believed our eternal interests to depend on our faith and our repentance, for his sake who loved us and gave himself for us.

SERMON III.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF TRUSTING IN GOD.

PSALM 1xxxiv. 12.

"O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."

EVERY creature has a natural and instinctive reliance upon that element where it is destined to live and move and find its sustenance. The first of mankind trode without hesitation and without fear upon the surface of the new born world, in as much security as when ten thousand experiments had proved to his reason, that this solid earth would not give way under his feet. God is the element of the human soul. In Him, in the infinity of His love, it lives and moves and has its being. He is